


Opposite - Fair Minds

by Sugar_and_Salt



Series: Opposite & Side by Side [4]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Romance, Supernatural - Freeform, slight!angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5655826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugar_and_Salt/pseuds/Sugar_and_Salt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about someone no one deems worth approaching.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opposite - Fair Minds

**Author's Note:**

> And here goes part 4 of the "Opposite and Side by Side"-series, orthographically revised and loosely connected to the other stories. Though this can easily be read separately~  
> XiuYeol is one of my all-time favorites, so I hope you enjoy it c:  
> Feel free to leave any form of feedback  
> Love,  
> Sugar-and-Salt ♡

  
  
Xiumin was annoyed. So very annoyed. The source of his distress was not far away. It never was.  
"Xiumin Hyung~ Why are you running away?" a loud voice boomed behind him, as he stopped to sharply turn around.  
"I'm not running anywhere, I'm simply going to my next class." he stated curtly.  
"But why aren't you waiting for me?"  
"Why in the world would I? I have no interest in talking to you. Go to your own class." Xiumin huffed as he re-adjusted his book bag over his shoulder and continued on his way.  
Unfortunately those seconds had been enough for the lanky figure to catch up to him. Instead of being disappointed or put-off, he simply laughed happily, walking closely by his side. "But Hyung, my class is close to yours, have you never noticed? Let's walk there together from now on!"  
Xiumin didn't even try to hide his annoyed groan.  
"Why can't you just leave me alone already?! We're as different as day and night!"   
"Actually I think we're quite similar, don't you see it?"    
He simply glared forwards, snapping: "I don't see anything. At all."  
Undeterred, Chanyeol kept babbling happily.  
"After this class you're free, right? How about spending lunch together with us?"  
" **No**."  
"Oh, you don't want to be around so many people, right? I can as well come over to you, they won't mind~"  
Xiumin sighed in exhaustion as his personally assigned pest kept on chatting about whatever, blatantly ignoring every sign of rejection he voiced out.

Chanyeol was a loud person. On the first day of high school Xiumin had already been forced to acknowledge Chanyeol's existence. While he transferred from another city, the much younger guy had been attending the integrated lower classes. Even though younger, he was much taller than Xiumin himself(which was not that much of a challenge, admittedly), but had a very deep and manly voice nevertheless, which was already slightly annoying, because: no fair.  
Most of the time he didn't even try to quiet down in any way. Everything about him was loud and obnoxious - the way he talked, laughed and even moved, more often than not running into whatever was even remotely close to him.

Xiumin was a quiet person. Even though he was wearing the dark-red tie marking him as a gifted one -one of the rare and dangerous level 1, no less- people tended to forget about him. He just went to school, attended classes and made up for his quiet presence with his detailed and accurately written assignments. He was rather short, and had a very young-looking face with roundish cheeks and rather big single-lidded eyes. Below his attire, however, he was rather muscular and not petite in any way. Not that anyone at school would know, since he wasn't one to flaunt anything. And even in changing rooms people would rarely pay attention to him in the first place. Unnoticed by anyone he moved through his life.  
Sometimes he even went to a supermarket to find his voice rather raspy, when greeting the cashier. Only then would he realize that he hadn't spoken a word in days.  
That was, until he met Chanyeol. Or rather, until Chanyeol met him.

Chanyeol was a very curious person. Interested in anything and everything as well as able to develop a genuine enthusiasm for all of it, he was someone who easily started up conversations. Of course Chanyeol also went up to talk to Xiumin in his first afterclass for gifted ones.  
He asked for his name and age as well as his gift, which Xiumin willingly gave out. But when he followed with endless questions about his favorite subjects, his hobbies and family, Xiumin already knew he should keep his distance to the overly excited teenager.  
For Xiumin was nowhere near interested in the people around him; he was a secretive person and saw no logic in invading others' privacy, while he himself wouldn't be willing to give anything in return. With the time going by he learned to simply shoo Chanyeol away, whenever the latter decided he wanted to be sociable with him.  
Chanyeol would take it with a smile and retreat, only to try again a few days or weeks later.  
But ever since spring, his behavior had changed and Xiumin had found his vision blocked by his ridiculously tall figure immediately on the day after. And the next day, as well.  
He had no idea what was going on, but Chanyeol wouldn't stop searching his company. Even though Xiumin didn't hesitate to use pretty harsh words, rejecting whatever his loud voice would propose, he didn't relent. After a few weeks, Xiumin wasn't even sure anymore whether Chanyeol was too dumb to take the hint or just straight-out ignoring it.

It's probably obvious by now, but Chanyeol was very well-known and popular around the whole school. Even though he had his small and fixed group of friends, he was on a friendly basis with most people, greeting people with a friendly smile wherever he went.  
However, he also had his fair share of enemies. Out of all gifted people at school, he was the one most unstable. His power being fire, there had been countless incidents where he accidentally burned something... or someone. It wasn't that he was an aggressive person, looking for trouble. But he tended to stand in for anyone he deemed mistreated. As a follow-up he got into fights with the bullies and even street-gangs if he had once again put his nose where it didn't belong. And even though he really tried to keep his power at bay, since he wasn't keen on getting home-schooled, he messed up more often than not.  
He also stood in for Xiumin, even though the shorter one didn't acknowledge him for that at all.  
As we heard before, Xiumin was very quiet, not drawing any attention to himself. Still, because he was short and kind of cute, once in a while some wannabe's tried to make themselves look tough by verbally(or not so verbally) attacking him. They called him names and tried to provoke him into loosing his temper, stating he was a coward for not using his gift. No one at school had ever seen Xiumin using his gift. Because unlike Chanyeol, Xiumin was in excellent control over it, being the second-best in his afterclasses. No power would seep out in any way. Besides that, Xiumin's composure resembled his element perfectly, meaning even if people went up to him and publicly threw insults at him: He didn't care. At all.  
People could shove him, laugh at him, threaten him: He couldn't care less. It wasn't that he was scared or intimidated in any way, he just wasn't fazed.  
Well ok, maybe the number of those incidents had increased this year. Everyone seemed to have forgotten how potentially dangerous a gifted one on level 1 could be. No one took him seriously, and some even began to speculate he had no gift at all.  
But, still, Xiumin didn't care.  
Chanyeol, however, did care.  
Whenever he was around to wittness people annoying Xiumin, he would butt in, telling them to cut it out. Seeing as Chanyeol was a far more visible threat, the cowards would back off quickly. He had never gotten a "Thank you" in return, or anything, really. Xiumin would always just walk past everyone, simply going on with his day. Not bothered the least, Chanyeol would continue standing in for him.  
Still, one day he had enough. Xiumin, that is.

Summer was about to end, but the sun was still shining brightly. The sky was crystal clear and school had barely started again when Xiumin had found himself already pushed against a wall close to the school building with a rough shove. With a bored gaze he checked the shoulder of his uniform for dirt, when the guy's hand roughly gripped his hair, forcing him to look his way. He just opened his mouth to probably spat some more uncreative insults, as the all too familiar voice called out to them.  
"YAH, what are you doing there!"  
His bullies -who's name he didn't even care to know- looked around to see a quickly approaching Chanyeol. Xiumin only rolled his eyes in annoyance.  
"What's your problem, he never did anything to offend anyone!" Chanyeol voiced out angrily.  
The bully that still had his dirty hand in Xiumin's hair, holding him up rather painfully, just snorted. "Well, maybe his FACE his offending me." Chanyeol reached out to grab his arm tightly, forcing him to eventually let go with a painful whimper. The tall guy kept calm, but nevertheless had his eyebrows furrowed in irritation. "Well, it's not **his** fault that you're ugly. If you would please leave now and cry about your inferiority complex to someone else, thank you."  
The guy's eyes were radiating of anger. Suddenly he shook off Chanyeol's hand as if he had been burnt, which had probably been the case. "You're such a loser, Park Chanyeol. Lately you've been around this pathethic guy a lot; is his gayness maybe rubbing off on you? No one cares about your knight-in-shining-armor-attitude, not even this faggot here. Just save it."  
Chanyeols eyes narrowed slightly, before he broke out in mock surprise, still keeping his voice composed. "Oh, you know who I hang out with? What a surprise... Considering I don't even know your name." Even Xiumin couldn't help but look at him questioningly; he had never seen Chanyeol getting sarcastic like that.  
"Now get. Lost." he curtly said with a final tone. Begrudgingly, the guys trotted away, not without leaving some last embarrassing insults lingering in the air as they went around the corner.  
Chanyeol followed them with his eyes until they got out of sight, before relaxing his posure and groaning. "Yeesh, what's up with those people! Don't they have any hobbies?!" he ranted, throwing his hands in the air. Then he swiftly turned around to Xiumin.  
"You alright? Did they ruin your uniform?"  
When he reached out his hand to touch the fabric of his jacket, Xiumin backed away a little, shooting him a glare. "Don't touch me." he hissed angrily. Chanyeol wore his unfazed 'Oh well, whatever'-face, and retreated his hand, instead opting to look around him to check for any dirt, when Xiumin snapped.  
"Say, what the hell is your problem, anyway?" he began with a deceivingly quiet voice full of barely repressed anger. The tall guy interrupted his awkward tries to get a look at Xiumin's back to look at him questioningly with this big, brown eyes of him. "Me? What's with me?"  
Xiumin inhaled deeply, trying hard not to throw anything at him in pure frustration.  
"Not only have you been following me around for months now, bothering me every single day, you also keep doing... this."  
He gestured at their surroundings, his voice steadily raising, "Have you still not noticed that I'm absolutely not interested in becoming friends with you?! Neither am I depending on your perpetual 'saving'; can't you see that I don't give a fuck about those people?! Are you blind or just plain stupid?!"  
Xiumin breathed heavily and crossed his arms, angrily staring (up) at Chanyeol. Said one's eyes had become even bigger, but he didn't waste any time, answering on the spot with his head slightly tilted to the side, his voice almost neutral as if stating a fact:  
"You don't care, I can see that. But I do."  
"Well then stop it!"  
"How could I stop caring?" he asked, innocent confusion all over his face.  
"You're so-... Ugh!" he exclaimed in annoyance, not even knowing how to describe it anymore. In a fit of resignation, he tiredly sighed and asked: "Chanyeol. What the hell do you want from me?"  
At this, the lanky guy became surprisingly quiet and kept looking at him. Then he averted his gaze and looked around, clearly thinking about his answer. It seemed as if he himself hadn't really thought about that yet. After a few moments, he looked back at Xiumin with that ridiculously bright smile of his.  
"How about your phone number?"

Xiumin should have known better. Still, he had been too tired to resist. He could always just ignore whatever this hyperactive guy would text him.  
And texting he did. He obviously didn't even pretend to seem non-eager. Instead, he got his first text message that evening.

 **From: Yeol** _  
Hello Xiumin Hyung~  
Now u have my number, too _ ٩(๑>◡<๑)۶

Needless to say that Xiumin didn't answer.  
(What kind of ridiculous smiley was that even?) - He didn't even change Chanyeol's KakaoTalk nickname to something more formal. However, he did open the chat, just so that the little yellow one would disappear. This way, he'd clearly make the statement of having seen the message but not caring to answer it at all. Or that's what he told himself.  
Xiumin didn't have a lot of friends, so one chatroom more made a big difference, actually. Especially such an active one. Well, onesidedly active one. For Chanyeol made it a habit of texting him one message every morning and every evening, on top of being all up in his personal space all day long. Xiumin didn't even talk about those messages during the day, since it would somehow mean acknowledging them. You can already see, he's a stubborn one. Or rather, they both were.  
So the days flew by with this short messages, that bared o terribly important content at all.

 **From: Yeol** _  
Good morning Hyung~!_ （-＾〇＾-）  
_Don't oversleep!  
Kkk, just kiddin', I know u never do  
See u later~ :3  
P.S.:  
It's gonna rain later, don't forget your umbrella D:_

 **From: Yeol** _  
Hyung, did u have dinner already?  
I wanna eat italiaaaan....  
Y is italian so expensive here?! _ （；￣д￣）  
_I'll go pester Baekhyun about it, kkk  
Sleep well later _ (✿◡‿◡ฺ)zzz

It might sound sad, but those messages that started out a nuisance, soon became part of Xiumin's daily life. Even if only to scoff at the weird emoticons. Very secretly he even waited for the annoying KakaoTalk jingle from time to time, looking at his phone (expectantly), wondering whether Chanyeol was the one oversleeping. So when one Friday evening, his phone stayed quiet, he didn't know what to make of it.  
Well, maybe Chanyeol was busy.  
Still no early message on Saturday.  
Maybe he forgot his phone.  
Satuday evening.  
Maybe he has some kind of date.  
Sunday morning.  
**Maybe he just finally got a life.**  
Sunday evening.

 **From: Yeol** _  
Hyuuuung_ ｡ﾟ･（>﹏<）･ﾟ｡  
_I'm so sorryyy... My phone broke down (._.)  
A friend repaired it, though! Lucky~!  
Did u miss me?  
Kkk_

**To: Yeol** _  
Keep dreaming._

**From: Yeol** _  
Omg, u answered~!  
It seems today really is my lucky day _ ٩(^ᴗ^)۶

Xiumin had replied without thinking, and now internally beat himself up for acting so carelessly. He shouldn't have reacted. What now? Pretending it never happened? He would think Xiumin was flustered. Which he wasn't. Then his phone beeped again.

**From: Yeol** _  
I'm gonna memorize this day in my calendar_

**To: Yeol** _  
Wtf, Park Chanyeol._

...An incoming screenshot of a mobile phone calendar, showing an annual event called: 'Xiumin-Hyung missed me for the first time (^ᴗ^)'

**To: Yeol** _  
You're such a dumbass._

**From: Yeol** _  
At your service~!_ (・ω・)v

From there on, there was no turning back. Xiumin still refused to regularly answer, but every once in a while he would text back, even if only to tell him he's being annoying. Again, neither of them mentioned their texts at school, as if they had never happened. Xiumin was wondering why he kept quiet about them, even though he bothered him so much with all the irrelevant nonsense he picked up every day.  
"...So I've decided to go shopping with Sehunnie on Friday, but Baekhyun rejected us again! I'm actually really worried about him, I wonder why he wouldn't talk to me..."  
"Maybe he doesn't get a chance in between your rambling. I could imagine."  
"Nooo... No no, Baekkie's one of my best friends, we talk about everything! Still, he seems kinda stressed and tired lately...When I tried to get through to him, he got really angry though and snapped at me to mind my own business..."  
Xiumin threw him a side-glance. It was rare to see Chanyeol seriously down, but he seemed to genuinely worry about his friend. Even ice-cold Xiumin wasn't heartless enough for a snarky remark.  
Unknowingly, his features softened, as did his voice.  
"Maybe you should give him some time. Stay close, though. That way you'll reassure both of you and put him more at ease. That's your strength anyway, isn't it?"  
The smile he got in return wasn't the usual overly bright one, but instead a more mellow, but grateful one.  
"Okay, Hyung. Thank you."  
They both got quiet as they walked down the streets. For some reason, Chanyeol had started to walk beside him after school, and neither of the guys had talked about why he was following him on his way home. Maybe the shorter one was just beyond caring at that point.  
The seemingly serious atmosphere made him kinda anxious, though. He couldn't help but wonder, for even if he saw the dumb guy on a daily basis, this had been the first time he got such a reaction. It dawned on him that he actually didn't even know a lot about Chanyeol in the first place. He just knew that he was a tall, hyperactive guy with the gift of fire who lived with his roommate Baekhyun. Yeah, surely Chanyeol talked about a lot of stuff, but something was bothering Xiumin. And if there was one thing certain about Xiumin, it was that he was a straight-forward person.  
"Yah, Chanyeol." he broke the quiet atmosphere.  
He immediately lifted his head, sending his mess of hair bouncing.  
"Say... You talk about so much nonsense all day. How come you never talk about yourself?"  
To this, the tall one just shrugged.  
"Well, you never asked."  
Xiumin looked at him skeptical, though he wouldn't meet his gaze.  
" _That's it_?"  
He got an affirmative hum in response.  
"Yeah. That's it."  
"So whatever I asked, you would just answer?"  
"Yeah, sure."  
Xiumin himself didn't know why exactly he was this intrigued. Still, he couldn't help himself but to push him a little further.  
"So why are you following me home right now?"  
"Hm... I didn't plan on doing so. I just meant to talk to you a little until we passed my station, but then we kinda got caught up talking. Still, the weather is nice and I have nothing important to do, so I figured I could as well keep going a little."  
Xiumin gave a scrutinizing hum, thinking of the next question.  
"Why do you keep protecting people from bullies, even though you always end up in more trouble than them?"  
"Well, it just should be done by someone. And I figured since I have the means of protecting people, I should put them to good use."  
The shorter one searched his eyes, that occasionally flitted over to him with that happy smile of his. He didn't find anything hypocrithal, which annoyed him somehow.  
"So why do you keep defending me, even though I clearly don't want you to?"  
"I just don't want to see you getting hurt. I told you, I care."  
Xiumin narrowed his eyes at this.  
"So if you care for whatever reason, why don't you care if people insult you? Why don't you care for yourself?"  
"Huh? Wait, let me think about it..." he began, tapping his jaw absentmindedly.  
"I think people are right about my gift being unstable. So when people try to provoke me, I don't let them get to me. Oh, but somehow their words mostly don't even hurt me in the first place. It's like random strangers saying stuff to me even though they don't even know me, I couldn't get hurt over that. ...Does that make any sense?"  
Now Xiumin was a little surprised; he wouldn't have imagined Chanyeol being so well-thought.  
"Actually that was the most logic thing you ever said."  
The tall guy gave an unmanly giggle which turned out weird due to his deep voice.  
After a while he turned to his quiet Hyung. "Is that what you feel as well? About those people bothering you?"  
There was no immediate answer, making him shrug again, but keeping the small smile on his face.  
"Ah, I guess it's not my day to give questions, then~"  
But after a few more silent moments, Xiumin hummed in affirmation, kinda nervously tugging at the strap of his bag and not meeting his eye.  
"...Yeah. So... Will you stop doing this useless things now?"  
Chanyeol nodded in understanding.  
"Nope~" he beamed, making a popping-sound out of the p.  
"Ugh, why?! And don't you dare asking anymore questions!" Xiumin broke out and went back to the interview, or rather the interrogation-like character of their conversation. A really tiny part of him was relieved though.  
Relieved, that Chanyeol wouldn't give up that easily.  
Said one blinked innocently. "Was that a question as well?"  
"Nevermind. Next question." Xiumin commanded to hide his emotions.  
"Why are you so stupidly honest?"  
"Because I like your interest in me."  
At this, his heart unintentionally fluttered, but he wouldn't show it.  
"So that means you're not honest to everyone else?"  
"Well, I am a terrible liar. However, if I don't want to talk, I simply refuse to do so."  
"Hm... So tell me something you wouldn't give out if any random person asked you."  
"My phone number~!"  
"..."  
Somehow, this was like a game. Ask your question smartly and you'll get the right answer.  
And weirdly enough it sparked some of Xiumin's competitive nature. He felt as if he was testing Chanyeol, seeing how far he could push him, while at the same time probing his proclaimed affection.  
"Now something you wouldn't tell Sehun."  
"Hm. I never tell him about the people pestering me about him; to give him love letters and the likes. He's pretty sensitive and it would make him nervous."  
"Ok. Now something you wouldn't tell Baekhyun."  
Not even that made Chanyeol pause. Without blinking an eye said:  
"I had a crush on his girlfriend once. A pretty big one, nonetheless."  
"Really now? So you like girls?" Xiumin asked, not missing a beat and hoping that he wouldn't think too much into this question.  
"Naw, I don't know. I guess if it's love, things like that come second."  
"So did you, like... Approach her?"  
"No way! She was my best friends' girlfriend! I protected the both of them from everything!"  
"Ugh, don't you have any ugly trait at all?!"  
"Huh? I have plenty! ...Wait, I shouldn't be proud about that."  
"Like what?"  
"First off, I can be incredibly lazy. Oh, and my whole life's some sort of big, uncoordinated mess that spreads and infects people like a disease. Or so Baekhyun likes to put it. I think it's his dramatic way of calling me a pest. A true best friend."  
"So, this is my doorstep." Xiumin suddenly said. They had reached a rather modern-looking apartment complex. Both of them didn't say a word for a moment. Then Xiumin inhaled deeply to gather the courage for one last question.  
"Why me?" he asked with a calm and serious tone.  
And when their eyes met, Chanyeol knew exactly what he was talking about. He didn't avert his gaze, his voice soft and firm.  
"I don't know."  
And again, he could see nothing but truth in his shining eyes. He nodded lightly to himself, turning around to step inside the building.  
"Hyung, wait!"  
He faced him one more time. Somehow, he looked like an abandoned puppy. A far too tall one.  
"Can I ask only one question?"  
Xiumin kept quiet at this, unsure if he would be able to easily give heartfelt answers like that. Chanyeol seemed to sense that, and just went on.  
"Can we go home together again?"  
He let the relieved sigh come out as an annoyed groan as he turned around to type in the code to the door.  
"God, you need a hobby. Whatever. See ya."  
Then he went inside, taking the steps as to not having to wait for the elevator.  
Interpreting the 'Whatever' as an 'But of course, I enjoyed it very much', Chanyeol broke into his typical abnormally wide smile.  
Certainly, his interpretation couldn't be too far off.

The conversation left Xiumin confused and he spent the rest of the day inside his flat, sitting in his favorite spot - On the comfy carpet at the high window, watching the bustling street far below, most people no bigger than ants to him. Far away from all the stressful emotions and hectic lives down there. Still, he already knew that Baekhyun was more than right; for associating with Chanyeol had already brought part of the chaos inside his head.

The encounter had left Xiumin even more intrigued. He kept thinking about this guy with the weird smile and even weirder hair. He just couldn't believe Chanyeol was so open about everything - and especially, that he was supposedly more open to him than to others. He just seemed like the type of person to like everyone equally.  
It became some sort of inner challenge for Xiumin to find out more about Park Chanyeol. Instead of flat-out asking him, however, he began to silently observe him. There were plenty of opportunities, after all.  
The following Saturday he saw him at the special afterclasses. While he pretended to get mentally ready or something like that, flexing his fingers absentmindedly, his eyes wandered off to Chanyeol, who was paired up with Sehun. They were engaging in a competition of skill, where Chanyeol would randomly create tiny flames and Sehun put them out as quickly and precisely as possible. Considering that he was labelled terribly instable Xiumin found he was doing pretty well, always being a few flames ahead of a very concentrated looking Sehun, while keeping his playful smile all the while.  
If he thought about it Chanyeol had always had lots of energy; maybe that was the problem in the first place. While watching him through the various exercises he came to the conclusion that Chanyeol excelled at most tasks, just failing those miserably, where reaction was asked(or not asked, for that matter). It seemed as if his body was reacting uncontrollably when faced with a possibly threat. That also explained why he was always holding himself on a short leash when faced with any kind of enemy.  
'Again, we're so very different.', Xiumin thought. He would never lash out at anyone with his gift out of anger or fear, he was in total control. But still...  
Then someone stepped into his vision.  
"Hey, Xiumin Hyung. You're clearly not concentrating." Suho scolded softly.  
Xiumin blinked. "Yes. I'm sorry. You don't need to call me Hyung, though. You're my teacher, remember?"  
"Suho Hyung, don't be mean to him~", the teleportation user who had just appeared besides us, chirped happily, "He's so good already, I'm sure he's bored."  
"Oh, he still has plenty to learn." Suho answered with a serene smile only Xiumin knew the truth behind. There was a reason Baekhyun was the best in class and not him. No one really saw the difference between them, but Suho could tell. Since secretly he was terribly bad at dealing with his gift when confronted with emotion or skinship of any kind. When he had a few years ago caused his sister Sohee serious frost-bites during a hug, sending her to the hospital for a few days, Xiumin had decided to move out and live on his own. That way, he could prevent any more accidents as well as keep his parents from worrying about his (lack of a) social life. This may or may not have been another reason for the boy's distant ways.  
"Hyung, are you alright?" he heard the familiar deep voice from behind him, accompanied by a hand on his shoulder. Flinching, Xiumin stepped away from his hold, and whirled around furiously.  
"I told you not to touch me!" he lashed out angrily.  
"Woah, Hyung - You're the only one that can make Xiumin Hyung that angry! People can ignore him, insult him or kick him and he won't bat an eyelash - but a mere 'Hello' from you and he'll go through the roof!" Kai laughed brightly, before teleporting to the other end of the room, escaping our possible anger at his cheekiness. Instead Xiumin felt like blushing, though. Kai was young, but had always had a good eye for people; it was basically the proof that Xiumin cared about Chanyeol in whatever way.  
"Enough of this." Suho fell in, clapping his hands at a sudden idea.  
"As you're both here already, why don't you two train together for a while?"

Even though observing Chanyeol with hawkeyes, he still couldn't find a thing to hint that he had been anything but completely honest to him. It irked him for some reason. When and why did this tall, overly bubbly person start to build up genuine affection for him, a short and gloomy guy?  
Maybe he just wanted to be friends with everyone, he thought. Then again, he seemed to be trying a little too hard, didn't he?  
All the thinking just left Xiumin more confused. Anyways, operation 'trying to understand what's going on in Park Chanyeol's head' was still ongoing.

**From: Yeol** _  
Good evening Hyung~  
I hope you're feeling well.  
Sleep well later~_

Xiumin furrowed his brows. Huh. It had been a while since Chanyeol had written a message that short and impersonal. If he had ever. Not to mention the lack of ridiculous emoticons. He couldn't help but feel that something was off.

**To: Yeol** _  
Yah, what an exchangeable and irrelevant message._

_\- Everything alright?_

As usual he didn't have to wait long for an answer.

 **From: Yeol** _  
U shouldn't worry too much about others Hyung~  
People will find out about your gentle heart - what are you gonna do? _ (^_−)☆

**To: Yeol** _  
Wth  
Would you please take me seriously, I'm not an idiot, you know?_

When the answer didn't came immediately, he couldn't help but add something, being quite angry.

**To: Yeol** _  
You always go on about how you want to be friends with me  
And how you'd tell me basically anything  
Yet you've never once written a negative thing  
Don't tell me your life's all sunshine and rainbows_

_How am I supposed to believe you anything?_

The yellow '1' vanished immediately.  
A minute passed. And another. Xiumin kept staring at his display in a disgruntled mood. He felt as if Chanyeol in a way looked down on him. Then again he felt almost bad, since the words seemed even nastier typed out like that.  
After another minute, he finally received a message - an address.

**From: Yeol** _  
Care to come over, then?  
I can't exactly go out atm_

**To: Yeol** _  
Give me 20 min._

Xiumin was curious, to say the least. So without thinking too much, he typed an answer, threw some comfortable clothes on and left the house in a matter of three minutes.  
Only when he was half-way there, did he realize something.  
' _Care to come over?_ ' - Well, **did he care**?

Chanyeol's shared room with Baekhyun was exactly that - shared. You could exactly make out which side of the room was his, as it was almost drowning in chaos. Not only that, you could even make out the gradient where it went over to Baekhyuns rather clean side - Again, he agreed with Baekhyun's statement of Chanyeol infecting his surroundings, since his side of chaos obviously began to slowly threaten consuming Baekhyun's side as well.  
Chanyeol greeted him rather sheepishly.  
"Oh, hey. You actually came. Come in. Oh, uh... It's kinda messy. Sorry. Just sit on the bed, I'll get some tea. Or would you rather like coffee?" he began, as he walked over to the small kitchen area.  
"Coffee would be nice." he replied neutrally and waited patiently while Chanyeol rummaged through the cupboards in search of whatever he needed.  
Somehow, he felt a little awkward now that he was sitting here on Chanyeol's bed - which was thankfully free of clothing and all the other stuff. The room was so crammed with stuff that it amazed him he hadn't tripped.  
Of course it shouldn't even have come as that much of a surprise to him,  
since he had by then realized, that Chanyeol was the picture-perfect opposite of him.  
And since he himself was so clean his friend teased him for bordering on OCD, of course Chanyeol would be messy as hell.  
Everything was like one of those children's games, where you'd look at a messy picture, being asked: ' _Search for 5 blue socks_ '!  
Xiumin looked around, practically hearing the questions in his head.  
' _How many base-caps can you see?_ ' - About 9? I wonder if there are even more around?  
' _Find the drumsticks_!' - There, in the cup on the desk. Why does he even have-  
' _Can you see any food?_ ' - Only candy. Thank God, that would have been gross.  
' _Count the Comic-books_!' 22, 23,-  
"There you go~!" Chanyeol interrupted him, offering him a cup of freshly brewed coffee. God, it smelled like heaven to the shorter one, who accepted thankfully.  
Chanyeol put his cup of tea down onto the desk and gripped a bunch of clothing from his only chair to put it somewhere else(Where it didn't belong either), to flop himself down.  
The awkwardness began seeping back, but obviously Chanyeol wouldn't let that happen.  
"So, yeah. I'm sorry." he began straight-forwardly, looking directly at Xiumin, who had raised the cup and then halted the movement.  
"What for?"  
Now Chanyeol reached for his tea cup. For a fleeting moment Xiumin wondered how he could the hot cup like that- Ah, right. Fire gift. It probably wasn't even hot for him.  
"You know... I only ever wanted to write positive things to make you a little more happy. Since you don't seem to be too keen on... Well, people in general-" Xiumin couldn't keep his grin at that. So the dork wasn't that oblivious, either.  
"-I just figured you wouldn't want to hear anyones trouble. But when you wrote me that last bit... I realized that it was like thinking low of you. I'm sorry if you felt like that, it wasn't my intention at all..." now Chanyeol began to lightly laugh over his own mistake, ruffling through his hair in a flustered manner.  
"I'm just an idiot, so I realize stuff like that later than most people, haha~"  
"So what has been troubling you?" Xiumin flat-out asked. His posture slumped a little and his smile faded.  
"It's about Baekhyun... Today was a very important day for him. He auditioned for a huge talent agency." Xiumin raised a brow at that. Man, he really **did** know nothing about, well, 'people in general', obviously.  
"It's a really big deal for him, he has been training for months. Still, not only didn't he come home, he also didn't answer any of my calls ever since. I don't know where could have went. Maybe he didn't pass, but he wouldn't get wasted without his friends... Or would he?" Chanyeol kept fussing, while he nervously moved the cup around in his hands.  
"First you drink your tea. Slowly." Xiumin instructed, to which he obeyed without questions.  
He looked at his wristwatch. "At what time was the audition supposed to be?"  
"Afternoon, around 3 or 4." Huh, it was already 9 P.M. That was indeed a little weird, then.  
"Okay. So how about we go search for him? First, you'll write down some places where he could have gone to. Then we'll go through them in a logical order." he calmly stated. The sentence wasn't even finished before the tall boy had grasped a pen and began scribbling. "Then we'll leave a note inside the apartment, so that he'll call you, if he returns before we do. Got it?" Chanyeol nodded eagerly. "You are just the best, Hyung!"

That evening they spent hours looking for Baekhyun, without success.  
Still, Xiumin kept on calming him down, as Baekhyun was a grown man who even was decidedly more mature than Chanyeol himself and a gifted one on top of that.  
"But he was so sick lately... God, it's all my fault, I didn't watch out properly-" he would whine in response.  
Honestly, Xiumin felt a little bad at that. After all, it had been his suggestion to give Baekhyun some space.  
Maybe it was this guilt that caused him to ask for a sleep-over at Chanyeol's.  
He somehow couldn't leave the tall idiot alone when he was worried and sad like that.

"...But you don't expect me to sleep in this mess, right?" he inquired, now a little hesitant of his choice.  
"Of course not, not on the floor, Hyung. You go sleep on my bed, I'll take Baekhyuns."  
Still hesitant, Xiumin sat down on his bed again, giving it an inspecting look.  
"Y-yah, it's clean, okay? I changed the bed sheets just two days ago!" Chanyeol said while blushing a little.  
"I can still change them, if you prefer-"  
"It's ok."  
"Oh, okay, then... Uhm..." Chanyeol ended kinda awkwardly, before he went to his closet to get out some pajamas out of the pile of chaos.  
"There you go, Hyung." Again, he received a rather judging look.  
"Ugh, this is clean as well, I get the feeling your mistrusting me!" he replied in his mix of playful frustration and genuine embarrassment.  
"Well, can you blame me?" Xiumin said, looking pointedly around, but reaching for the clothing nevertheless.  
When he returned from the bathroom, he wore a pretty blank face.  
Chanyeol couldn't help but chuckling.  
"It's far too large. No surprise, but still." he monotonously said while trudging to Chanyeol's bed, trying hard not to trip over his pants' seam. Chanyeol really wanted to coo at his adorable look, but was smart enough to surppress it.  
"Sorry... Baekhyun's would probably fit better, but while he's not here... Touch his clothes ad he'll go berserk on you. He'll laser me to a pile of ash."  
"It's ok."  
The bed-sheets had the distinct smell of Chanyeol, which was kind of unfamiliar but not bad. Making himself comfortable, he heard the slight rustling from the end of the room, signalizing Chanyeol had slipped under the covers as well.  
When they both found a comfortable position he switched of the light and darkness enveloped them, along with silence.  
Xiumin cursed himself again for being so anti-social and awkward. Probably Chanyeol was regretting having him over by now. Couldn't he do anything right?  
"So... Thank you for staying, Hyung."  
"Just... Stop calling me Hyung. Formalities don't even suit you."  
Again, it came out more rude than intended. Ugh.  
"Really? Are you sure? Okay. Thank you... ... **Xiumin**."  
Though they couldn't see each other(which was probably better for both of them),  Chanyeol was grinning like a giddy teenage girl.  
And Xiumin, on the other side was blushing a slight pink upon hearing his name being called in this intimate way. Especially by that deep voice.  
He sighed quietly. Why was he even pulled towards that (admittedly attractive)dork that was everything he wasn't?  
 

  
  


* * *

  
  


  
When Chanyeol finally managed to reach his best friend, he had been almost to the point of declare him missing. Even though he was loud and annoying, Xiumin found it kinda endearing how genuinely worried he was.  
He couldn't help but wondering whether **anyone** would miss him that fast if he just disappeared on the spot. And, if that 'anyone' would be Chanyeol.  
As it turned out, Baekhyun really had been kinda sick. Even though Chanyeol didn't mention anything and Xiumin wouldn't want to bother him about another person's business, he could tell. From there on, Chanyeol didn't come to bother him at school as often anymore. The reason simply being, that he was practically glued to Baekhyun 24/7. Like, literally glued. Baekhyun was pretty much hanging from his arm wherever he went. Once in a while Chanyeol still came over, but it got rather rare. Whether he didn't want Baekhyun to see their weird relationship or whether he was sort of ashamed for one of them, he didn't know.  
All he did know was that he grew weirdly irritated. Even though Baekhyun had never done a thing to him and was a rather pleasant person to be around... Xiumin couldn't help but ask himself: Why are you so close? Is that really necessary? How old are you?  
But even in his denial-over-everything-state he could tell he was just sort of jealous not to be at the receiving end of Chanyeol's puppy-love. Besides that he was mature enough not to show anything.  
Strangely enough, while Chanyeol kinda pulled away slightly(due to Baekhyun), Xiumin leaned towards him a little more. He would answer his texts more frequently and even caught himself waiting for him once after school. At some point, the walk had become far too short, though, and one day they instead ended up in a coffee shop.  
"You know what I think?" Chanyeol began in between mouthfuls of cake, eating as if he ad been starving all day - which, due to his forgetful nature, might just as well had been the case.  
"I think Baekhyun is aaa~bsolutely into our healing tutor!"  
At this, Xiumin almost choked on his cheesecake. "L-Lay?!"  
Chanyeol looked at him strangely. "Is there anything wrong with Lay?" he asked imploringly. "No, no. Not at all. It's just... I didn't know they were close?" Xiumin began slowly, not knowing how to react to this new-found information.  
Even though the lanky guy kept talking, his gaze still remained a little suspicious.  
"Yeah, right... Anyways, I just know there's more between them. At the moment they're living together-"  
"-...they are what."  
"Living together, is everything alright, Hyu-...Xiumin?"  
"Y...Yeah." Lost in thoughts Xiumin completely zoned out.  
"Well, there wouldn't be a problem, since Lay's kinda awesome and such, but I'm a little worried. Maybe he'll somewhat scare him off. I mean, you know how Baekhyun is. Or maybe you don't. But he's like, reaaaally... Straight-forward. In every area. And Lay's so quiet and soft, I'm really wondering if he could handle Baekhyun; he's quite a hand-full, and that's coming from me-"  
Suddenly Xiumin seemed to remember he had been in a conversation, lifting his hand to get a word in. "Wait, what did you just say?"  
"Uhm, that I was wondering if Lay could handle Baek?"  
Now Xiumin almost snorted into his precious coffee. Chanyeol just looked confused.  
The elder one held up a hand to slightly mask his silent laughter.  
"You know... I don't think you should worry about **that**. You should rather worry for  
your friend instead."  
"Huh, how do you mean that?"  
"Tell me then, what do you know about Lay?"  
"Hum, he's a healer who works at the hospital and tutors us...", Chanyeol began, counting on his fingers, "He's friends with Suho. And he's really friendly and patient... And very soft-spoken...-"  
"That's it, right?"  
"Well, yes, but-"  
Xiumin had an amused glint in his eyes as he ruined Chanyeol's perfect imagination.  
"So what if I told you he's the type to go to clubs at least once a week, dancing for hours and hours?"  
"Eeeeh... You're kidding right? How would you know anyway?"  
Having a good day and feeling like a tease, Xiumin added with a sassy grin:  
"Well, because we go together, duh. You should hear him whining whenever I try to ditch him - 'Xiu-Minniiie~ Come on, just once, it'll be fun! I need to dance!'; it's so difficult to decline him, though his pleading eyes of course won't work on me... Anymore. But I'm telling you, he does know how to move. If you ever heard the term to dance like 'Sex on legs'... That would be referring to Lay."  
Chanyeol gawked at him with widened eyes, his cake miraculously forgotten.  
"You... You dance?"  
Now Xiumin made an attempt to metaphorically draw back a little again; weren't they talking about Lay just now? Why talk about him?  
"Uh... Well... Sometimes I only wait at the bar, enjoying the music and stuff...?"  
"And at other times you dance?" Chanyeol asked persistently, his eyes shining in an unsettling way.  
"Goddamn, yes, so what?"  
"I wanna tag along next time."  
"What - no?" Xiumin stammered, obviously flustered by the idea, but due to his surprise the reply lacked the usual finality.  
"Aww, come on!"

 _From: Yeol  
So you said you go once a week? I need a time and a place!  
I can hear you sighing, Hyung. _ ๑•́ㅿ•̀๑)  
_But now Baekhyun wants to see Lay Hyung dance so badly - He keeps pestering me and there's nothing I can dooo...~  
...So give him the judging stare as well, okay? *kkkk*_

 _...Pretty pretty pleeease~!_ =^∇^*=

In the end he did give away the address and time of their regular friday-evening place, even though he wasn't sure why. Maybe he didn't want to stand in the way of the possible romance of his only true friend.

_To: Yeol  
Fine. Lay's at the 'World's End', every friday at 10/11 P.M_

_From: Yeol  
And u will be there too? _ (・◡・)

_To: Yeol  
Who knows._

_From: Yeol  
Oh, but I have a gig at 10 _ (꒪⌓꒪)  
_I think we'll be there at around 12 - Still ok?_

_To: Yeol  
Sure. He'll be so into it by then, you'll hardly get his attention_

Xiumin put his phone on the nightstand and went to brush his teeth.  
Gig? What sort of gig? Was he playing in a band? He did see drumsticks. But also a guitar-bag.  
When he had changed into his sleeping attire and flopped onto his bed, he finally couldn't hold back anymore and reached for the phone again.

_To: Zhang Yixing  
Hey Lay.  
Mind doing me a favor?  
(And don't you dare ask questions)  
I want to know the place where Park Chanyeol has his gig on Friday.  
You're close to Baekhyun, after all?_

_From: Yixing  
Ah, you heard?  
Well then, I guess I owe you this, don't I?_

_To: Yixing  
Not only for that.  
But be smart about it, if I wanted him to know I would've asked him directly myself._

_From: Yixing  
I'll be stealthy as a unicorn._

_To: Yixing  
You and your weird Korean expressions...  
How the hell do you think a unicorn would be stealthy?!_

_From: Yixing  
Well, have you ever seen one, then? :)_

_To: Yixing  
..._

_To: Unicorn-Lay  
Now I've renamed you.  
And I kept the 'Lay', so everyone will know it's you._

By now you surely wondered if Xiumin had any friends at all. While he did have some friends on the web, persons that were actually there to hang out were pretty much reduced to one person: their occasional healing tutor Lay.  
They didn't actually meet at school, though. Surprisingly they met at a dancing academy, where both of them were taking evening classes.  
Alas, the academy was closed and Lay got too busy to continue taking courses. Instead they made it their tradition to go out at least every Friday to dance freely.  
Xiumin really enjoyed Lay's company. He could be playful and childish, but mature when he needed to be, smart, patient and had an even better eye for people than Kai. And besides that, he was gifted with healing powers - There was no way Xiumin could accidentally hurt him.  
In any way, Lay hadn't ever mentioned anything about Baekhyun before, so he would make sure to ask him later at the club.  
It somehow began to annoy him that he didn't know essential things about the people close to him. Maybe Chanyeol really had infected his brain.

Usually they picked each other up, but Xiumin obviously had somewhere to be first.  
When he stood before the entrance of a small and ragged looking club he hesitated.  
Still, the letters above spelled 'Crazy Dog', so this had to be the right place. And the sign that was written messily with white chalk announced that day's lineup, where - in between various crossed out names - it indeed read: 'Park Chanyeol'.  
He felt the guy at the entrance giving him a weird look, even though Xiumin had done his best to adapt to the environment; after all, he didn't want to get caught by Chanyeol.  
He had quite dressed himself up for the club, but wore a huge Parka above his outfit as well as a Beanie to conceal his hair. Still, he wore quite the heavy make-up and didn't actually blend into the rather rugged and hip-hopish audience he saw outside.  
Now that he was inside the club it didn't look all that bad. Sure, it was downstairs and had therefore no windows, but held a number of small tables and chairs spread across the area, leaving room in front of a medium-sized stage. Overall the ambiente wasn't as shabby as he had expected.  
He got himself a beer instead of a coke(even if only in protest to the stares the bartender gave him for looking so styled), and made his way to a table he seemed perfectly fit.  
And as the time went by and the club filled with streams of people, it turned out to be a good choice - even though very close to the side of the stage, he was pretty much hidden behind the standing audience.  
Actually he was kinda surprised this club was that popular - He had never heard of it, and couldn't see any instruments either. It took the highly anticipated arrival of the first performer, that made Xiumin finally understand where he was: This was a club for underground rap!  
He couldn't quite believe the overall setting - maybe his stereotypes had been kind of wrong. But what he could believe even less was that Chanyeol was supposed to be a rapper. Harmless, puppy-like Park Chanyeol, a badass rapper? No way. Nooo, no. Xiumin shook his head.  
Maybe he was the guy with the guitar solo in between. Or something like that.  
The first performer politely bowed and introduced himself as Zelo. He looked awfully young and kinda cute. At that point Xiumin thought he maybe should go home. But when he started rapping, it was just plain amazing. Even though he was no expert he couldn't help but admire the speed and flow of that kid, who had the audience wrapped around his finger in the blink of an eye.  
Following was a guy named Zico who was everything Xiumin had pictured thinking about underground hip-hop.  
After that, a quiet and extremely husky performance by a so-called Yongguk send the audience into deep and melancholy thoughts.  
Then a fierce guy called J-Hope riled the audience up again.  
And after him, it was supposed to be Chanyeol's stage.  
Xiumin had by then come to realize, that most performers weren't actually newcomers(besides that Zelo kid and the J-Hope guy). Still, the amount of cheering Chanyeol got before he even stepped on stage, was astounding.  
When he finally stood in the center of the stage Xiumin couldn't help himself but to stare.  
He had only ever seen Chanyeol in his school uniform or in overly casual(not to say sloppy) clothing. Now he wore attention-seeking wide baggy pants with a complete black and gold print on them. Together with the equally wide black tank top it made for an outfit that would make a short person like Xiumin look like a dwarf, but complimented Chanyeol's tall figure well. In addition to that he wore some rather discreet accessories and had obviously had his hair done; in place of his old perm that had almost grown out and left his hair in a constant curly mess, his hair was now freshly crimped, making it even more voluminous, yet in an organized manner. Xiumin had to admit, the organized mess suited him quite well.  
And then he began with his first song.  
It was a song about the usual boasting rappers did. Xiumin was a little surprised at this. He wouldn't have pictured Chanyeol as the type for all those attempted-boasting? His flow was skillful, but the content... Some people in the audience seemed to giggle as well. And when his rhyhmes got a little off and his flow seemed to trip over the words, Xiumin felt a pang of second-hand embarrassment. Especially when he said stuff like: _And yeah, I'm hard, hard like your grandma's cookies-_  
The comparisons got more and more random, and just as Xiumin wanted to bury his head in his arms, Chanyeol reached a peak in his clumsy flow with the line: _And for your information, I so fucked all of your moms... Which is actually not all that cool now I think about it? But you all know-_  
And then the audience joined him in his chorus that claimed he was just kidding.  
_Just kidding, rappers are just kidding. Or at least I hope they are - They can't be serious! 2 pound of gold chains? How can you even walk?_  
Now that he had overcome his worry of Chanyeol making an idiot out of himself, he began to enjoy the performance. As he heard his rap, he felt stupid for not realizing that Chanyeol's deep voice was made for rapping. The song was a fun one, making the audience sing and shout along. But it wasn't only thanks to the amusing lyrics; his stage presence was just amazing.  
It was hardly believable that the guy up there was the same messy and ditzy Park Chanyeol he saw every day. Or maybe he really wasn't all that different and this was just what happened when you let him go all out. When the song ended, he announced a new one, called ' _I'm sorry, but..._ ' - Just when Xiumin thought some kind of sad song was about to come, Chanyeol began to tell the story of how he was in a fresh relationship with a girl, but kept making mistakes due to his gift. _Sorry Babe, I kinda burnt that cake, I didn't mean to-_  
And then he kept on rambling about how his relationship was always faced with slight... Difficulties. _My heart just burns for you - Not unlike that tablecloth right now-_ He kept making some flailing gestures and his voice was kind of acting out the scenes as he went on about how _their candlelight dinner was so grand, the firefighters were invited_.  
Xiumin couldn't help but smile. That was Park Chanyeol. Equipped with the right appearance, flow and way of words... Instead of boasting and competing, he used it to make people laugh. With a tad of healthy irony towards himself he made the audience partake and enjoy their evening. He was kinda proud of him.  
After that song it  was announced that the crew he was a part of would perform a song together, and so Chanyeol was joined by three other rappers Xiumin hadn't seen that evening. While everyone got his own part Xiumin only had eyes for Chanyeol, who had sat down at the edge of the stage, leaving his long limbs to dangle as he moved his upper body to the rhythm, communicating with the audience occasionally to spur them on a little.  
When he jumped in again to do his part, it was the most serious he had performed yet. While he thanked his crew-mates Kyung, Yano and Jenissi first, he then properly introduced himself. He still lacked the pretentious boasting of stereotype rappers, but instead went on about how he was just your next-door guy, but next-door guys should not be underestimated. Overall it was a presentation of his rapping abilities, and Xiumin liked his witty way of using the language. When he mentioned he wasn't ' _only gifted in one way_ ' with a cheeky wink, though, he swore his ears had gone red under his beanie.  
When he made his exit shortly later, Xiumin was clapping along loudly, far too immersed to even think about getting caught anymore.

When Chanyeol and Baekhyun entered the club shortly after Xiumin himself, he had already downed his first two shots. He had been talking to Lay until said one became impatient and jumped onto the dance floor. So Lay and Baekhyun... Now that he thought about it, they had quite some things in common. Surely they'd work out just fine. Then his gaze fell upon the two guys that sat at the second bar, across from him. He couldn't keep in his smile as their jaw literally hit the floor upon seeing Lay dance(who was by then totally lost in his own world). When Rainism followed up, he almost shook his head - how very cliche. He pondered whether he should go to dance as well. Actually he was nowhere near a bad dancer, but next to Lay he did feel kind of self-counscious. So he instead ordered another drink. By then Chanyeol had began scanning the room for him. Hah, there was no way he would recognize him that easily, since the shorter one had dressed himself up to his best ability. He went for a tight, black pair of pants, combined with a loose top made of a shimmering and structured artificial fabric, accompanied by a simple silver earring. Besides that he had died his hair from brown to a light and soft bubblegum pink, styled in a slightly disheveled way. As the finishing touch he had his eyes rimmed thickly with black kohl to create an alluring and dramatic effect. What had seemed like a great idea before, now made Xiumin hesitant; maybe he had overdone it.  
He could as well just wait here... And drink another shot. Then again, it wasn't quite right that Chanyeol stared at Lay like that. Xiumin didn't like it.  
Suddenly the familiar beat of a Chinese song named "Fantasy" was played, and Lay kept jumping around giddily, wildly gesturing for Xiumin to join him. With a smile Xiumin hopped from the bar stool and strode over to him; he couldn't deny Lay a song from Show Luo. For now he tried not to think about Chanyeol and Baekhyun watching him and instead focused on the mix of elation and relaxation on Lay's face, as he moved to a song in his mother language. He really must miss his home country from time to time. The song was had a pretty neat up-beat vibe and was perfect for Xiumin to loosen up a bit. He had just begun to lose himself in the music, when his eyes saw over Lay's shoulder and directly into Chanyeol's eyes. He almost froze in mid-movement, but that would've been way too obvious. Still, the tall guy made him damn nervous, as he just kept staring. Usually Chanyeols expression was like an open book to him(and probably everyone else around), but at that moment he had no idea what went through his head. He was... Attentive, following his every moment. He didn't smile, but didn't seem displeased either.  
Still, something about his gaze was so intense that Xiumin felt weirdly exposed.  
The alcohol slowly began to sink in and he worried it might make his movements sloppy. And when with "S.N.S" a sexy song introduced itself, Xiumin felt his stubborn nature get to him - there was no way he would lose to Lay! He might not have his technique, but he had the look and the opportunity (and a tidbit of alcohol). With those three magical ingredients to spur his bravery on, he began to dance more purposefully, his movements going from sharp and controlled to (hopefully) erotic and flowing movements. Once in a while he playfully danced with Lay, just to look over to Chanyeol the next second, tilting his head and smiling lightly mouthing along the lyrics, as if urging him to join him. And if he interpreted correctly, Chanyeol was more than enticed to do so. Yet, he was trapped there with Baekhyun which only served as a wonderful opportunity to tease him some more from afar.  
Boy, this was fun. When he left after the next song to sit down at the bar again, he could feel his eyes still glued to him. Then he reached for his phone and Xiumin automatically got his out as well. The message arrived mere seconds later.

 _From: Yeol  
Daaaaamn Hyung  
Stop teasing meee... _ ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ  
_I can't even join you_

_To: Yeol  
Why is that? Baekhyun?_

_From: Yeol  
Yes._

Then the said one pulled at his sleeves, yelling something into his ear and they left the club. Somehow, he was slightly annoyed. He didn't even say goodbye.  
Hm. Now that the evening was kinda over and he was a little frustrated, he might as well get wasted and dance a little more, right?  
But after another 2 minutes his phone vibrated again.

_From: Yeol  
I sent Baekhyun home with a taxi~_

_To: Yeol  
Why don't you come back in, then?_

_From: Yeol  
Nah, I don't wanna be the third wheel  
Since you two seemed to enjoy yourself_

There was a certain lack of emoticons, which made Xiumin suspicious. Before he could answer, however, another message came in.

_From: Yeol  
So... I guess it's goodbye for today?_

Xiumin fidgeted. There was a question mark. Was this some kind of indication?

 _From: Yeol  
See you tomorrow then_ ~ (・◡・)

Then he finally snapped, typing back hastily.

_To: Yeol  
I'm tired of texting  
You're in front of the club?_

_From: Yeol  
Huh? Yes?_

_To: Yeol  
Stop right there._

Xiumin grabbed his things and simply went out of the club, curtly saying goodbye to Lay. The latter was already immersed into the music to a point where he had no qualms in leaving him; he was an adult, for god's sake.  
Even though the cool air hit his face, he could swear his cheeks were glowing at the sight of Chanyeol waiting outside. He looked even more handsome close up. They both looked at each other for a second, before Chanyeol spoke first.  
"Hi there."  
"Hey."  
"Uhm, so... Nice outfit."  
"You too."  
Chanyeol looked around casually, upholding the conversation.  
"You don't wanna go back in?"  
"Ah. No, not really."  
"What about Lay?"  
"He'll survive on his own."  
"Oh. Okay. So then..."  
It seemed that even Chanyeol once in a while ran out of things to say.  
Not too surprising, considering the fact how much of a conversation killer Xiumin was.  
"Should I walk you home? There are no more trains coming, but it isn't too far, right?"  
"About half an hour? Maybe a little more?"  
"Well, how about it? It'll be like a good walk after school~"  
Xiumin nodded and they began walking in a slightly uncomfortable silence. Actually, Xiumin had no idea what he even wanted from Chanyeol. And he was still thinking about why it even came to all of this in the first place.  
Suddenly he felt Chanyeol reaching for his hand. Out of instinct he harshly pulled it away, looking at him with wide eyes.  
Chanyeol answered with a pout on his face.  
"Aww, come on, Hyung!"  
Xiumin felt conflicted. He was somewhat disappointed in himself as well as sorry for having to reject the friendly boy over and over again.  
When he didn't even receive a harsh answer, Chanyeol looked a little thoughtful. A few steps later, he spoke up again.  
"Say, do you dislike touches so much?"  
"Uhm... Yes. Yes, actually I do."  
"Haaah, you were hesitating just now. So what about Lay, then? You didn't seem to have a problem touching _him_."  
Xiumin threw him a side glance. Was he assuming something? But... No, he got it all wrong, he internally screamed. Still, he somehow didn't open his mouth.  
"...Or maybe it's just me that's appalling you?" he asked quietly, with a tinge of bitterness.  
"- **No**! I mean... No. It's just because of his gift!" he finally broke out.  
"Huh? What about his gift?"  
"Well, it's healing."  
"Well, and?"  
"And... And there's no way I would hurt him, okay?!" Xiumin answered unintentionally snappy.  
 Now Chanyeol stopped to look at him with wide eyes. Then, after a moment that seemed agonizingly long, he began to laugh.  
"W-What is your problem?!" he angrily barked at the laughing boy.  
Said one bit his lip to stifle his laugh a little.  
Flustered, Xiumin stalked past him, when Chanyeol reached for his hand again.  
"Why - Don't-" he began, but Chanyeol cut him off, now with a sincere smile.  
"But Hyung, I'm a gifted one, too! There's no way you would hurt me!"  
Xiumin still half-heartedly tried to free his hand as he argued.  
"So you think that's a good idea? Fire and ice? Let's see whether I'll get burnt to a crisp instead?"  
"What makes you think my gift is fire?"  
"Seriously now?"  
"Don't be silly Hyung, I never ever hurt a friend~ Besides that I'm not even affected by your cold. So you don't need to hold back on me~ ...but my, your fingers really are cold-", he rambled as they now walked hand in hand, "Is heat or warmth in general uncomfortable for you?"  
"No it's not."  
Yes it was. Xiumin deeply loathed the soaring summer sun. But since this kind of warmth was somehow different and quite pleasant, he wouldn't tell Chanyeol. For now.

"Sooo..." Chanyeol began after a rather long moment of silence.  
Xiumin signalized his listening by throwing him a side-way glance.  
"...About Baek and Lay. Are you... Okay with them?" he cautiously asked.  
Xiumin didn't even bat an eyelash, having the answer ready.  
"Of course. I think they'll compliment each other well, as much as I know of Baekhyun, at least."  
A deep hum followed in response. And as he further thought about how touchy and close Baekhyun and Chanyeol had seemed - especially recently -, he couldn't help but wonder.  
"...And you? Are you okay with them?"  
"Me?" he echoed surprised, before a sincere smile spread across his face.  
"Sure thing. I think of Lay as a good person; he even partied in a civilized manner just now. I'll entrust my best friend to him. I'm a little sad I can't help him the way Lay does, but I guess that's how it's supposed to be. In the end, no matter how similar, love has a different flavor than friendship after all.  
Uh, I don't wanna sound too depressed about it, though - Baek needed a little looove in his life and I'm glad he found it~!" he ended happily, swinging their intertwined fingers back and forth, lightly squeezing them. And Xiumin, thoughtful from receiving the heartfelt answer, squeezed back.  
This kind of skin contact was kind of new but nice, considering he didn't walk around holding hands with Lay. So when they reached his doorstep, he was more than reluctant to let go.  
When Chanyeol opened his mouth, Xiumin fell in without thinking.  
"You can stay over."  
A surprised look from the big and curious eyes.  
"Uhm. You've never seen my apartment, right? A-and it's late. If you have to go home alone - I don't wanna owe you anything, and-"  
"Okay, I'll take your offer, then~" he cheerfully replied. A second of Xiumin looking dumbfounded followed. Then Chanyeol swung their still interlocked hands.  
"Sooo...?" he began, snapping Xiumin back to reality.  
"Yeah, right. Come on."

"Waaah! It's so clean! Like, squeaky, sparkly, sparkly clean! And so bright and stylish - Like in a commercial!" Chanyeol cheerily admired as he entered the living room.  
"Well, we can't all live in a complete mess."  
"Ahaha, you're right~"  
It was weird how he wasn't even slightly offended, Xiumin thought as he watched Chanyeol stroll around, scanning the titles of his books neatly ordered into his shelves as he hummed happily.  
Okay, so now he had Chanyeol in his house, which didn't feel as weird as he had pictured it to be. He cleared his throat lightly to get his attention.  
"So, since it's kinda late, I'll show you where to sleep."  
Ten minutes later, Chanyeol looked at the pajamas in his hand with a conflicted face. Xiumin had gone to the bathroom and had already told him goodbye for the night, announcing he'd sleep on the couch. A look to the bathroom door confirmed this; Xiumin was nowhere in sight.  
Since Chanyeol's body temperature was pretty high at all times, no matter the surroundings, he had a certain dislike to sleeping in long pajamas. It was just uncomfortable. So after a last stealthy look around, he decided to slip under the blankets in his boxers, placing the sleeping attire as neatly as possible next to the bed. He switched off the night lamp and snuggled into the still pleasantly cooling bed sheets. A few minutes later -he had already been half asleep-, the mattress behind him dipped with additional weight. First, his brain barely registered it. But then he felt a very cool finger touching his neck and slowly running down his spine, sending a shiver rippling through him.  
Then it slowly dawned on him.  
"Huh... Wait, Xiu-" he began, turning around - only to be stopped by a surprisingly strong but equally cold hand on his shoulder.  
"What is it, Chanyeol?" he heard the voice behind him ask rather softly. He was confused, to say the least.  
"Uh, what are you doing?" he cautiously asked, keeping still for the moment.  
"Isn't this what you wanted all along?" he went on and a slightly cool pair of soft lips began to kiss his neck, first pecking it lightly, lingering a little longer every time, before moving along his back; from his shoulder blades to the side of his neck and to his hairline. The feeling sent another shiver through him and he left out a sigh, overwhelmed with the sudden need fluttering inside of him. Still... just because it felt good, it didn't mean it was right.  
"Xiumin. You should stop that." he tried to say as casual as possible.  
"Why? You don't like it?"  
Fingers were dancing along his bare arms, leaving a shudder in their trail.  
"I'd be lying to say so. Still, you shouldn't."  
"Why?"  
"You're drunk."  
"I'm not drunk."  
Wonderfully cool hands encircled his waist to dance along the flat stomach as the kisses got just a tad closer to the side of his face.  
"Yes you are. I saw you taking at least five shots with my very own eyes."  
"So what? I can assure you I'm still crystal-clear."  
Chanyeol couldn't keep in a low moan as Xiumin boldly kissed up his neck while his hands continued to roam along his body. The small but all the stronger hands pulled him closer towards his cool body.  
The feeling of colder skin against his own, naturally warm one began to cloud his mind. It felt so, so good. Actually Chanyeol wouldn't have pictured his Hyung to be this bold. A finger began to encircle his nipple, while his lips obviously sucked a lovebite, just to lick across it once, tentatively.  
"I thought I shouldn't hold back, Chanyeol?" he heard the voice from behind him croon, lower than usual.  
Xiumin's half-lidded eyes widened when Chanyeol suddenly whirled around to press his back into the soft mattress. Now he was hovering over him, his wildly crimped hair slightly damp from sweat. His eyes had that look again, that intense one. Xiumin almost smirked to himself at the revelation. So it had been a look of lust, after all.  
"So I don't have to hold back either, huh?"  
His voice was calm and serious. For some reason, a serious Chanyeol made Xiumin feel weird things. Still he held the gaze as he got aware of the close proximity, how tiny he felt under him. Chanyeol inched closer, until his upper body lay flush on Xiumin's equally bare one, as he leaned in close to Xiumin's ear, whispering huskily into it.  
"Don't worry, I'll make your body hot.."  
He then slowly licked his ear and god, didn't Xiumin feel hot already. As if all ability to breathe had left him; The warm hands gliding down his sides, the hot body on top of his, the burning tongue on his ear. Right now, every single thought of him screamed: Don't stop it. Chanyeol's sudden dominant streak made him even hotter. And when he began to bury his head in his neck, pressing hard kisses to his slowly warming skin as his hands kept him in place, Xiumin squirmed and softly moaned.  
The pleasure was thrilling and addictive and made him lean into the touches, slightly arching his body closer to the source of heat. The kisses turned more passionate as Xiumin lightly gripped the messy hair.  
"So good... It's so _good_..." he sighed as he received more kisses along his shoulder, trailing down his body.  
A surprised mewl escaped him as a wet kiss was placed onto his sensitive nipple.  
And the kisses went lower... Down his sides, over his stomach and navel, teasing his hipbones with hot licks and kisses. Xiumin felt wrecked. It was soft but hard. Passionate but tender. But above all that...  
"...It's so hot." he whined, barely above a whisper.  
Chanyeol went back to slightly hovering over him, looking into his bright, pleading eyes with that warm brown orbs of his. Xiumin was thoroughly flushed by then and subconsciously licked his lips as they stared at each other. Not averting his lust-blown eyes Chanyeol cheekily slid a finger under the waistband of his shorts. Instinctively, the shorter one flinched, and the finger was gone in an instant. The eyes, that hadn't left his, were shining with a hint of mirth as Chanyeol rolled to the side of his body, pulling him into an embrace. All the tension seemed to have disappeared in the blink of an eye, as he placed a soft kiss onto his hair.  
For a few seconds, nothing but uneven breathing was heard.  
When Xiumin deemed his breathing calm enough, he raised his raspy voice.  
"...You never intended to do anything, did you?"  
He could basically feel Chanyeol smile his goofy smile.  
"Nope. You're drunk."  
Xiumin groaned in frustration.  
"Jerk."  
"That's not a nice thing to say. I merely returned the favor." he said as he softly petted his hair.  
"I can literally feel you're turned on as well."  
"No joke. Clearly your fault."  
Xiumin merely huffed, letting Chanyeol's big, warm hands softly massage his back.  
After a few minutes of silence, Xiumin spoke up again, relaxed by the careful but certain caresses.  
"You know... I'm sorry."  
"Mh?" he got the tired response.  
"I underestimated you. And I am really sorry for that."  
"Why? Cause I didn't take advantage of you?"  
"No you idiot. It's not that."  
"Then what is it?" he asked in a sleepy mumble.  
"Since you won't take me seriously now, I'll tell you tomorrow."  
"Fine by me."  
He moved to place a soft kiss to his cheek before continuing to hold the shorter one against his chest.  
"You're forgiven."  
"You didn't even hear it yet."  
"Let's sleep now."

When Xiumin woke up he could tell that he had been sleeping longer than usual. Still, the way the sun shone through his windows and onto the bed told him it wasn't too late.  
Somewhere along the night Chanyeol had tangled their legs together, one arm still thrown around his waist.  
The feeling of waking up in the arms of someone was so foreign. The whole concept of skinship was still foreign, but overall the heated skin against his felt amazing.  
He cautiously lifted his head as not to wake him and studied Chanyeol. Now he thought about it he had never looked at him this close and for so long. His light brown strands of crimped hair were silently bouncing along his every movement, glowing from the sunlight. In between his right ear peaked out. While Chanyeol felt self-conscious about them, Xiumin didn't see anything wrong with his ears; they actually suited him perfectly. Then his eyes wandered over his face. His skin wasn't as pale as Xiumin's own, harboring a slight natural tan from being outside a lot. He had those soft but manly features with lips slightly parted-  
Then he began to stir, as if awoken by the inspection. Xiumin's eyes flitted down in an instant. Sensing this, Chanyeol's slightly rough hands drew him closer as he inhaled the scent of his hair.  
"...'morning, Xiu..." he mumbled, his voice even deeper from sleep. Then, after a few seconds, maybe even a minute, his body suddenly stiffened and he drew away slightly, with big eyes throwing his elder friend a slightly panicked look.  
"Y-You're not gonna kill me, right?"  
Xiumin chuckled.  
"Tss, I told you I wasn't drunk. Of course I won't."  
Chanyeol nodded thoughtfully to himself as if weighing his options. Then he drew him back into the warm embrace.  
"If that's so... Let's sleep a little more."  
"Yah, Chanyeol, it's pretty late already."  
"Mh. How d'ya know?"  
"The clock on the wall. Today's Saturday, which means afterclasses."  
He got a soft groan in response.  
"Come on, I thought I was the one supposed to have a hangover."  
"So you admit you drank a lot."  
"You frustrate me. Drinking and being drunk are two different things. As I told you, I remember clearly."  
Silence followed. As an afterthought, he added:  
"...And I'm neither dying of remorse nor regret right now, just to let you know."  
"Mhmmm..." a deep and thoughtful mumble was heard. Even though he couldn't see his face, he felt that Chanyeol was very much awake by then.  
"So what were you going to tell me yesterday?"  
"Uh..."  
"You do remember, don't you?"  
"Of course I do! I..."  
Without the magical courage called alcohol, Xiumin felt flustered to talk about this. Still, he tried to voice out his thoughts as collected as possible.  
"I want to apologize to you. I have been underestimating you."  
For once in his life, Chanyeol just kept quiet and Xiumin went on slowly.  
"Because you were always popular, I thought you had to be shallow in any way.  
Because you always had time for everyone, I took it you had no diligence.  
And because you cared... I thought you had to be a hypocrite."  
The embrace slightly tightened. Xiumin knew he should look him in the eye, but he couldn't and buried his face a little further into his lean chest.  
"But you're actually genuine about everything. You're exceptionally smart and even though you're an active member of the Science Club you find the time to be part of a rap crew, of the voluntary fire brigade, to learn new things and keep the old ones fresh in your mind. And besides all of that you manage to care for your friends for those who need you... And for me, even."  
He forced himself a little away to look into those chocolate brown eyes that had never lost their patience with him.  
"I always accused you of not taking me seriously, when in reality it was the other way around. I didn't take you seriously. That's what I'm sorry for." he ended, genuinely looking at him with eyes, shining in deep regret.  
At this, Chanyeol smiled the brightest he had seen yet and even a light blush dusted his cheeks.  
"That's... Thank you. Honestly, that must be the nicest thing anyone has ever told me. I'll treasure your words for sure."  
Still, Xiumin's smile remained a little mellow and withdrew himself completely from the taller ones touch.  
"Besides my words there's not much I could give you, though. Let me be completely honest with you. I... I have come to to like you. I didn't mean to, actually. But it happened."  
Chanyeol eyed him warily, unsure of what to make of his tone.  
"But look... I don't think we would work out. The two of us, I mean."  
A flash of hurt went over his face, as he tried not to sound too desperate.  
"W-why would you think that, Hyung?"  
"Because of what we _are_. Chanyeol. We are not meant to be. We are too different-"  
"Are you on to that again? How does it even matter?"  
"Because we don't fit into each others' lives, simple as that. Your life is so eventful, so busy, while I'm content with leading my days in a quiet and simple matter. One day, you'll yearn for more than what I could offer you. And soon enough, we'd be fighting over trivial things, since the only thing we have in common is our stubbornness. I'm... Scared. I don't want to see things end like this."  
"So then prove it."  
"Huh?"  
Chanyeol looked at him, undeterred.  
"Let's try it. Being together... Let's try it for a month."  
"What... Are you talking about, **no**."  
He'd fall even more, and then it would hurt all the more as well.  
"A week, then."  
Xiumin narrowed his eyes. Of course Chanyeol wouldn't give up like that.  
"One day."  
"Naw, gimme me at least three." he pouted.  
"Fine. No more than that, though."  
"Starting Monday?"  
"Tss, starting right now."  
"What?! No fair, I didn't prepare anything!"  
"You want to know what I'd do to a person not associated with me, that I woke up next to in nothing but shorts?"  
"Uh... Ok, Fair enough." Chanyeol groaned, ruffling his hair before swinging his legs out of bed.  
"What are you up to now?"  
"Making breakfast of course - You can just sleep a little longer or shower~!" Chanyeol called back from his way to the kitchen.  
Xiumin stared into the nothing, processing his words.  
Chanyeol. Messy, clumsy Chanyeol in **his** clean kitchen. Xiumin's eyes widened, as he hastily threw over a pullover to pad after him, mumbling: "Oh no, you don't..."  
  
 

  
  


* * *

  
  


  
"You don't need to observe me like that, I'm not gonna blow anything up, you know?"  
"U-huh."  
Chanyeol turned around from the thorough kitchen exploration to see a skeptical Xiumin leaning against the door frame with crossed arms.  
He went over to softly but insistently push him out of the room.  
"Just go shower, we need to leave soon unless you wanna be late. I'd like to rush by my room before to change, as well."  
Xiumin padded away reluctantly.  
"Just trust me~"  
Xiumin huffed in disbelieve. What was he even going to make? He was positive there was nothing useful in the kitchen at all.

"Ta-dah~! Take a seat~"  
Xiumin put the damp towel over his shoulders and did as he was told.  
He looked onto the set table and did as he was told. There was a big bowl with steaming content in the middle and a high glass of something fruity-looking. Chanyeol slid into the chair across him and began to fill his plate, all the while talking cheerfully.  
"I'm sorry if you prefer traditional breakfast, but there was no way to make it so quickly... Out of nothing. What do you even eat?" he laughed as he placed the plate in front of him.  
"I rushed to the conbini to get some toast-slices. This is a simple breakfast-trick I learnt from my European friend - You turn the bread around in the egg and fry it. I cut it smaller, however, so you could eat it with chopsticks~ And I used your cherry-tomatoes, I hope you don't mind."  
He propped a piece into his mouth and hummed gratefully. After all, he hadn't eaten anything in a pretty long time.  
"It's good!" he smiled through the second piece. Sure, it wasn't a Korean breakfast, but instead a nice new experience. After a few more bites, he looked over to the glass.  
"And this is...?"  
"It's a fruit cocktail! I used mostly the fruits you had and what I could find downstairs. I may not look like it, but I've been bartending once. There were many Strawberries, so I figured you like them and made those the main note."  
When he took a sip, he couldn't contain his glee - it was indeed sweet as strawberries with just the right amount of lime and orange.  
"I didn't know you've been a bartender. It tastes awesome." he said, genuinely surprised.  
"It was a rather long time ago. That's were I got to know Sehun."  
"Really? What happened?"  
"I'll tell you another time~" Chanyeol winked and Xiumin rolled his eyes, giving his full attention to the best breakfast he had in ages.

Thankfully for Xiumin, Chanyeol didn't make a big fuss out of their 'experiment' at their afterclasses. What he did do, however, was to request a preliminary certificate for Xiumin. He wouldn't tell him what for, though. Getting a full certificate would acquire time of preparation and tests but doing a preliminary one was easily made in an hour, especially if made by your traditional teacher. Since Suho knew Xiumin very well it was just a matter of paperwork and a few small tests. The result would be stated in letters, while a full one was measured in percentage. Lay for example had 98%, equivalent to the letter A+ and expression of extremely skillful control. Chanyeol on the other hand had something around the letter D, and had failed all full assessments yet, always scoring below 75%, marking him as unfit for public activities.  
With Xiumin there were no such problems of course.  
Half an hour into Suho filling out forms and Xiumin 'warming' up, two persons entered the room. One of them they all knew, but the company was new.  
Suho lay down his things and shortly re-introduced them to Kyungsoo, who hadn't been attending the classes for a while, and then asked the boy beside him to give his own introduction. Kyungsoo had a hand resting on his shoulder, but the boy gently denied the contact as he stepped forward.  
"Uhm, hello everyone! I'm Chen, 21 years old and new here, as you could probably tell. I'm a level 1 with the gift of lightning. So, yeah, nice to meet you all, and thanks for having me." he ended, bowing formally. He had a very nice voice and didn't show too much nervousness. Though probably even a tad shorter than Xiumin himself, he had quite the aura. Xiumin curiously tilted his head from side to side as he examined the newcomer - a habit of his.  
Suddenly he felt a hand ruffling through his hair.  
"Aww, why so cute, Hyung~" Chanyeol cooed behind him. Embarrassed, he shook his hand off.  
"I'm just wondering. Something about him is... Different?"  
"You think so? He seems cool to me~" Chanyeol chirped as he strode over to the new addition of their team to greet him.  
When he was a few feet away from him, a sudden cracking noise was heard, followed by two simultaneous 'Ow!'s. When Xiumin looked up, both guys sat on the floor. Chanyeol rubbed his head, while Chen seemed to have a similar problem.  
When everyone made an attempt to get closer in order to help, Suho fell in:  
"Stop. Don't get closer, it might be dangerous." he calmly stated as he stepped towards the two. He looked down at the two confused and slightly hurt males and sighed. "Yes, that was predictable. You two-", he began, looking at each of them, "-are very similar, based on element and strength-level. In the diagrams of the government you would be neighbors, so to say. And you're both rather unstable. Therefore the gift of the one person reacts to the other ones', if you can follow me?" Both guys nodded hesitantly, and slid a few feet away from each other, eyeing the other one with an apologizing look. "I know you'll both improve quickly and may also get used to each other, but until then I advise you to hold your distance, just for your own safety. Got it?"  
Another nod followed.  
"Wonderful. So Chen, we'll make a proper assessment for you next time. For today, I'd like you to just observe the others; the way they train and the way their gifts work. This way you'll get a good idea of how it works around here, as well as be able to personally get to know them." he ended with a genuine smile. When he left to further take care of Xiumin's certificate, Chanyeol spoke up again.  
"Hey. Sorry about that."  
They both didn't move, but smiled at each other.  
"I guess it's my fault as well. So what's your name?"  
"Chanyeol. Nice to meet ya~"  
"Yeah, nice to meet you, too. I have that weird feeling we'll be good friends."  
"I know, right? I just thought the same!"  
They both laughed happily as they sat on the floor like idiots.  
While Xiumin filled out some forms himself, he couldn't help throwing them side-glances every now and then. They had clicked immediately, now happily chatting as Chanyeol introduced him to everyone while keeping their weird distance. Xiumin sighed quietly to himself, feeling confirmed in the thought that similar people had it easier. Then Chanyeol suddenly met his gaze as he was talking animatedly. When it was Chen's turn to talk, he kept looking at Xiumin and gave him a cheeky wink, childishly waving both his hands in an overly cute way, before returning to his conversation. Feeling caught, Xiumin looked down to his forms again with pink cheeks, being secretly happy to receive special attention.  
When Xiumin went over to him after class, pushing the certificate that had a big "B+" written on it into his hand with a curt: "There. Happy?" Chanyeol only smiled and began tugging Xiumin along.

"Okay, Xiu, you need to change."  
"W-what?" Xiumin asked confused. Chanyeol was rummaging in the backpack he brought to Xiumin's flat. He named it a sleepover, stating that if they were acting as a couple, he could as well enjoy not to sleep alone. At this the elder one slightly blushed, thinking about the previous night.  
But now he said he needed to change, he became wary in an instant; had he been doing anything wrong?  
Then Chanyeol turned around to him with a handful of clothes, a quizzical look on his face.  
"What's wrong? You need some clothes you don't mind to get dirty, come ooo~n~!" he playfully whined. Xiumin exhaled in relief. He didn't even question anything and just went to his wardrobe to search for some old sweaters.  
Before he could find matching pants, he felt two hands rest on his shoulder, as well as a chin on his head. Damn his height.  
"Aww, Xiu. I didn't mean it like that, no need to freeze on the spot." he lightly chuckled at his bad pun, receiving a halfhearted nudge from the shorter ones' elbow.  
"But jokes aside; I'd never just ask you to change like that. I mean, for once that'd be a big deal. But more importantly if there's a need for change, it always goes to both partners, you know what I mean? Since everything about relationships is a two-way street."  
"Y-yeah. Now stop embarrassing me over my misunderstanding." Xiumin grumbled, feeling the deep chuckle from over his head. In turn the taller one nuzzled into the side of his face to place a short kiss on it.  
"Yes, Sir. Let's get dressed, then."

Call Xiumin an ignorant(he'd probably agree to you most of the time), but he had never spent a single thought to stuff like the voluntary fire-fighters. Now that they entered the base where a bunch of people of all ages was spread, talking animatedly, he felt a little uneasy. Chanyeol of course greeted everyone they passed and was obviously a welcomed sight. It was obviously his territory Xiumin stepped into. Normally he'd act out his Hyung, commanding Chanyeol around and all, but this time he felt rather small. If the taller one was aware of that, he didn't show it as he gently tugged Xiumin along to something resembling a reception.  
"Hello Hyung~" he cheerfully greeted, giving Xiumin the unreasonable pang of jealousy at him calling someone else Hyung.  
"Oh, Chanyeol-ah, nice to see you." the receptionist with the name tag 'Leeteuk' answered with a soft smile, but a certain twinkle to his eyes.  
"You found another victim to accompany you?"  
"Shh, Hyung. You'll scare him away... Just kidding, it might be for one day only, but I'd like to ask permission for Xiumin to accompany me. And heeere...", he began as he got out the certificate, "...Is his certificate. B+ is even better than Sehunnie, so he'll surely be allowed, right?"  
"Well, we had quite some time getting to know Sehu-Oh my, you're an ice user?!" he interrupted himself, looking incredulously at Xiumin, who tried not to flinch at the sudden attention.  
Leeteuk instantly put the certificate onto his documents without averting his eyes.  
"You're in."  
"What, that easily?!" they said in unison. The receptionist smiled overly friendly at Xiumin.  
"Just let me know when Chanyeol here gets in your way, we'll take care of him. Don't mind him too much, just enjoy your stay here."  
"Yaaa~h~", Chanyeol whined, "How can you replace me that easily~? I thought I belonged to the family~!"  
Leeteuk looked at him with the same friendly smile.  
"Stop whining, Park Chanyeol. You know you're our wild card, in every sense of the word, as well as a family member. So, as your fellow family member I'll tell you: Don't let him get away, will you?"  
Even though the man seemed genuinely loving, Xiumin couldn't help the feeling he had a certain authority.  
Pouting, Chanyeol tugged at Xiumin so he could guide him around to explain things.  
Usually you'd need a proper training, but as it so often was the case, gifted ones had special regulations. And since Chanyeol had received training for years, it was alright for him to take a gifted one along as long as he took care of them.  
After a long tour they all sat together, eager to get to know the newcomer. Even though nervous he could tell they were all good people that'd respect him if he gave his best. As expected on a Saturday night, there was an alarm later on. Everyone was preparing quickly and efficiently, leaving Xiumin a little helpless, but Chanyeol just pulled him along so they'd sit in the back of a car. One university wing had caught fire and it was said to be a bad case.  
Someone made a call to their second gifted regular member. Xiumin was nervous as hell, not to say worried sick about the possibly suffering people. But Chanyeol only adjusted his protective clothing and then rubbed his shoulders through it.  
"Shh, Hyung, you can do it. You don't need to do anything if you don't want to. Just stay close to me, okay?"  
But as they arrived and got confronted with the disaster, Xiumin could never not do anything. Everyone was acting quickly and professional. Chanyeol immediately rushed over, close to the fire, with Xiumin right behind him. The heat was nearly unbearable for him, though Chanyeol was of course not bothered by it. Through some light and controlled hand movements he managed to extinguish parts of the fire, making them go smaller and die down eventually. He started with some small flames and went to cover bigger areas.  
Xiumin was slightly panicked and lost. He had never been faced with a heat that terrible. Not knowing how to go about it and not wanting to disturb Chanyeol's balance, he took a few steps to the side and tried not to act too hastily as he attempted to cool down the air around him.  
Someone suddenly came up to him, grabbing his arm roughly.  
"Hey, Ice-user! We need you over here-"  
Too surprised to fight or accidentally freeze the middle-aged man, he let himself dragged over to face the entrance of the building. "Luhan said there's someone up there, around there-", he shouted, making a few gestures, "Can you try to stabilize that area until we get there?!" Xiumin nodded and went to work immediately. Depleting the flames in that area was possible but he couldn't guarantee the safety like that. It was frustrating. He knew that his power was grand, for god's sake he was a level 1; extinguishing the complete wing should be an almost easy thing for him to do. But he wouldn't be able to responsibly handle an area big as that, considering he had never used his power for anything that huge. Besides that he was reasonable enough to know how not to attempt this in his shaken and slightly panicked condition when lives were at stake. Instead he took a step to the other gifted one, announcing: "I'm going in! Is it one person?!"  
The guy looked at him alarmed but shook his head. "No, it must be two girls- One younger and one about our age - If you're really going in I'll lead you mentally, okay?"  
Creating an extremely cold sphere with about one meter radius around him, he made his way inside. Every flame coming in touch with it just extinguished with an angry hiss. Holding up a smaller space like that was much easier, even though the surrounding heat was no joke. The gifted guy outside held his promise and gave him mental directions(which should have disturbed him if it weren't for the dangerous situation). Still, he managed to find the girl and her younger sister, cowering in their room. Taking both girls by their hand he made his way back, which was far more complicated this time round, as he needed to keep the temperature on a bearable level for the two while still keeping the flames away.  
But he managed.  
And when he exited the building to find Chanyeol commanding most of the fires down in determination as he looked for Xiumin, he couldn't help but smile.

"Ah, Hyung, you got me worried there!" Chanyeol announced as they sat in the deserted last train, deep at night. He snuggled closer, laying his head on his shoulder.  
"You've been doing this for the first time, why so reckless?"  
"I wasn't reckless." he stubbornly replied. Chanyeol only hummed and intertwined their fingers.  
"I'm sorry if this was a little... too much. This was a pretty huge fire, comparing to the standards."  
"It's okay."  
Silence followed, only filled by the soft rattling of the train.  
"You know-", Chanyeol began, his voice tired from exhaustion, "If we were actually together... You wouldn't need to always accompany me. It's kind of dangerous for you, after all."  
Absentmindedly, Xiumin rubbed the back of the hand that was much more rough and big than his own one.  
"And if we were together, you'd think I let my partner alone to face danger on a regular basis?" he inquired rather softly, looking at nothing in particular. When he received no answer, he found that Chanyeol had fallen asleep with their hands still intertwined.

That evening they fell to bed, both too exhausted to even bicker. Instead Xiumin just settled for enjoying the warmth that radiated off of the lanky figure that had draped itself around him.

It seems as if Chanyeol had planned out every second of their three days, since he already dragged Xiumin out of the house shortly after breakfast. The shorter one silently dreaded that he'd never get a minute of peace again. On the other side he could see how Chanyeol genuinely let him be a part of his life, so he would go along with it. At least for the remaining three days. Ah, remaining two days, he corrected himself.  
"Uhm, Hyung?"  
"You're still calling me Hyung."  
"Ah sorry, Xiumin, Honey?"  
"Don't get too cocky."  
"Sorry~ Can we pay a short visit to someone?"  
Xiumin sighed, a silent part of him feeling unhappy at the thought of wasting those two days around other people, but oh well.  
"You decide our schedule for the weekend anyway, don't you?"  
"Hehe, sorry, sorry, sorry~"  
"Don't you dare go Super Junior on me."  
"-So we can? It would mean a lot to me."  
Slowly Xiumin began to be able to differentiate between the tiny changes in his voice. The fine lines between each emotion carried with the seemingly same, hearty laugh. Not really sure how to feel about that yet, he just nodded in defeat.  
"Yeah, whatever. Let's get going."

It turned out to be a visit to a hospital. Xiumin hadn't been expecting this. And as they sat in front of a sleeping patient with Chanyeol talking to him relentlessly, the other boy was slowly and silently eaten away by guilt. He hadn't said anything, but he had disliked the thought of sharing their time; what a petty person he was. Then again Xiumin refused to wail in self-pity, since that would only be another ignorance added to his already filled daily quota. There was someone in front of him who was far more important. And the thought of being asleep without ever being able to wake up... Scared Xiumin. In fact, it scared him greatly and the emotions made him physically shake.  
Being cold and unfazed was easy when turned away from everyone. Now at the sight of someone close to Chanyeol, he couldn't contain the empathy.  
Sensing the change next to him, Chanyeol gave him a surprised look, before he silently rested his arm around the petite-looking shoulders to pull him in a warm side-hug.  
"Yah, Xiumin Hyung.", he chastised softly, "Don't make Kris Hyung sad. You don't need to be afraid - He will get better soon."  
Empty words, Xiumin thought. But oh, wouldn't he want to believe them.  
"It's not just empty words-", the deep voice interrupted as if reading his thoughts out loud, "I can feel it. I can feel the life seeping back into him. He was very frail when he came in, even I was worried. But now it's different. It may take a while, but he'll be back."  
Xiumin didn't ask why he would be able to feel something like that. For now he wanted nothing but to accept the safe haven he was offered.

It took Chanyeol a while to get the smile back on the shorter one's face. Yet he didn't give up and kept making silly jokes and annoying him playfully, until Xiumin slowly reverted back to normal. When they had reached the next destination(Xiumin had given up asking about Chanyeol's plans long ago), he finally got his good mood back; it was a small and cute coffee shop, almost tiny with only about four tables inside and two outside. It only added to its' cozy charm, though. When they stepped in, Chanyeol cheerily waved at the man behind the counter. He was older than Minseok himself, but had a youthful aura. Though his features were rather sharp, his eyes were warm and his smile sweet. He didn't seem like a person one could dislike, Xiumin decided. So he trailed after Chanyeol, who jumped into a conversation immediately. The shorter one lightly shook his head at him. Did this guy know every person in the whole of Seoul? But those cakes sure looked delicious...  
Suddenly he was ripped out of his thoughts as the lanky giant pulled him up at his arm to face his friend.  
"So let me introduce to you, ta-dah: This is my friend Xiumin!" For some reason, Chanyeol seemed almost proud to be able to call him a friend, it seemed. The thought was kinda embarrassing, but still flattering. In a way.  
"And this is Ryeowook, the owner of the café~ We've known each other for ages! The cakes he bakes are incredible! You'll never taste anything better!" he boasted, while Ryeowook dismissed him with a wave of his hand and a friendly smile .  
"Stop flattering me, you're never paying anyway; no need to sugar-coat me." Then he went to the storage room, leaving the empty shop to the two boys to look after. Chanyeol jumped behind the counter to act out a waiter and prepared Xiumin's cake of choice.  
"You also wanna have some coffee?" he called out over his back. He received an eager hum in response.  
"Well, you wanna help me out a bit? I don't really have a clue about coffee." Chanyeol asked sheepishly. Hesitantly Xiumin stepped behind the counter.  
"...Is it okay?" he asked carefully.  
"Suuure thing~! I shuffle around this place the whole time. And look, it's deserted anyway~", he chimed happily, "So now tell me. What kind of coffee do we make?"  
Xiumin looked at the machines. He loved coffee, yes. And he had often watched Baristas in envy while they prepared the hot beverage. Still, he had never actually touched those machines.  
"Uhm... I don't think I can work these..."  
"Don't you worry, I know how these things work just fine. I just don't know about coffee. So what do we make?" he repeated reassuringly. Xiumin absentmindedly tilted his head from the right to the left. "Mh... I can choose any?"  
"Anything you wish for."  
"Okay, then I'd like a Mocha coffee."  
"...What's that?"  
Xiumin gave him an incredulous look.  
"You don't know?"  
"I told you I'm no good with coffee...!", he whined childishly, "It's so bitter! Besides that, look at me? Do I look like someone in need of caffeine?"  
A look at his ever-so-hyper friend made him nod in resignation.  
"Fair enough. Okay, for a Mocha you need to mix one third of espresso with two thirds of heated milk and add melted chocolate."  
Chanyeol nodded in understanding and went to get what they needed. One click and they had steaming hot espresso. Oh, the smell was delicious to Xiumin's pale nose, making him sigh. Meanwhile Chanyeol got the heated milk and put the chocolate in the microwave. He attempted to pour the espresso in the cup, when Xiumin intervened.  
"No, stop! It doesn't go this way. You have to wait for the chocolate, put it into the espresso, then add the hot milk and finish it with cream!" Chanyeol nodded again, looking a little lost, as he reached for the melted chocolate.  
"Are you trying to fill it all into this mixing cup? God, move aside, please."  
Softly Xiumin stepped next to him and took the ingredients out of his hands carefully, re-checking the temperature and filling the liquids in another cup, following his proclaimed order. Chanyeol shot him an amused glance and stepped behind him, with both hands on the shorter ones' waist and chin resting on his  silky hair. He didn't even bother to tell Chanyeol off, as he was focused on the drink before him. Being able to use all these ingredients and tools was exciting. Xiumin stopped thoughtfully, looking at the melted Chocolate mixing with the espresso. "Say... You have any chocolate syrup? That's milk chocolate. A tad dark chocolate syrup would outbalance the taste, I guess."  
Chanyeol hummed. "In the bottle with the red cap."  
He had difficulties to reach it, with Chanyeol literally attached to his hip.  
"I like you struggling against me~" the deep voice spoke lowly into his ear.  
"Do you want to die?" he asked back in a pretense of neutral consideration. In mock surrender Chanyeol reached for the chocolate syrup, well-aware of the blush creeping up the shorter ones' ears. To distract from his discomfort, Xiumin kept on explaining.  
"So after the chocolate comes the hot milk, like that... Following a tad of cream to enrich the taste... And some whipped cream on top... With a little chocolate syrup finish... Done."  
"Woah, it looks good!" Chanyeol claimed happily, taking a picture with his phone. Xiumin tried to bite back his happy smile. "You want a coffee as well?" he offered, encouraged by the compliment.  
Though happy, he seemed hesitant. "Uhm, I don't know if I could appreciate it-"  
"Don't worry, I know just the right thing for you!" Xiumin intervened, brushing past Chanyeol to get a new cup. "Leave me some space and sit down."  
"Don't wanna~"  
"Shush, leave. It's a surprise."  
No more resistance followed.  
He imitated Chanyeol's actions to get an espresso and proceeded to wuss around. He could feel Chanyeol's eyes boring into his back, but spared him no glance. Instead he focused on the beverage, trying to make the cream puff on top especially beautiful. He thought about forming a heart with the chocolate syrup, but it was kind of embarrassing. So he instead settled for a little pattern on one side and some sprinkles of white Chocolate on top, because he felt like it. Adding a little cookie to the side... Perfect.  
He went around the counter to place it in front of Chanyeol.  
The way his eyes lit up in awe made him a little giddy.  
"It looks like art! What exactly is inside?" he asked curious, leaning down to inspect his coffee on 'eye-level'. 'How can someone this tall be so cute?', Xiumin wondered. When the huge eyes flitted up to meet his in a questioning manner, he cleared his throat, feeling caught.  
"Uhm, yes. It's an Othello, a mix between coffee and hot chocolate. Since you don't like bitter things I used milk chocolate and added a tinge of white chocolate to make it more sweet. So... Yeah. I hope you'll-"  
"-Oooh, this looks nice!" a sudden voice behind him made Xiumin jump in shock.  
Ryewook peeked over him(damn all these tall people) and eyed the hot beverage.  
He had totally forgotten the owner of the coffee shop was still around. But before he could actually get flustered, Ryeowooks cheery voice fell in.  
"I would like to get one as well! Would you be so kind?" he asked in an angelic manner, sitting down across Chanyeol. "U-uhm, I... Yes, sure. One more of this?" he stammered. "Yes, please~"  
As Xiumin shuffled back behind the counter to prepare another coffee he felt nervous. Meanwhile he heard the two friends chat about this and that.  
"Ah, it's nice to sit back and talk like that. Chanyeol-ah, you should have learned something useful, so you could treat me once in a while like that."  
"No fair... I can do cocktails."  
"We don't sell cocktails, though. Obviously."  
"Not my fault."  
Glad for the playful banter he tried his best to make to beverage look good. After all it was for someone who knew coffee better than he did.  
When he padded back, and set the coffee down, Ryeowook immediately made a curious noise and reached for the small silver spoon.  
"So it's also an Othello?" he asked, eating a bit of the cream first. Awkwardly, Xiumin kept standing to his side. "Yes... But I didn't know your preference, so I mixed some dark and white chocolate for a good compromise. I hope that's alright..." he ended quietly, fidgeting with his sleeves. Ryeowook only smiled and swirled around his drink a little. "You got the marble-effect pretty well... It's even more impressive due to the differently-colored chocolate."  
Then he took a sip. And another. Xiumin didn't even know why he felt so nervous. Alright, it was obviously a Hyung, a Barista nonetheless, who tasted his coffee. But should it even matter? But if it was bad, would Chanyeol laugh at him?  
With a hearty smile, the elder placed down his cup and looked up at the fidgeting boy.  
"It's wonderful. You're hired."  
"Ahaha..." Xiumin laughed awkwardly and set down next to Chanyeol in relief.  
"But let's get the boring paperwork later, I don't wanna let this get cold." he continued, taking another spoon full of cream.  
Xiumin stared.  
"Oh, you should drink your own one as well - Don't let food go to waste~" Ryeowook winked playfully.  
He still stared.  
"Yaa~ah, Ryeowook-Hyung... Don't flirt with Xiumin." Chanyeol pouted, shifting his chair a little closer to him.  
Finally, the shortest at the table spoke up, his voice uncertain.  
"...You were joking about the hiring thing, weren't you?"  
He received a surprised look. "Oh why would I be joking about that? Your coffee is also not a joke at all... Wait, you didn't tell him, Chanyeol?"  
A guilty look to the ceiling gave him away at once.  
"You did tell me you were on the look-out for a part-time job, didn't you?" he asked innocently. Xiumin didn't even know whether he wanted to smile at his sweetness or pinch him. Hard.  
Instead he settled for a monotone "What the hell, Park Chanyeol."

In the end he did sign the contract and promised to bring a full certificate in soon; good thing that Chanyeol had brought along the preliminary one(which he had copied at some point). When they were on their way home, Chanyeol finally broke the silence.  
"So... You're still mad Hyung?" he peeped(Oh this voice so wasn't suitable for peeping at all, Xiumin noticed), shooting him a sheepish glance.  
"I am mad. Why didn't you tell me?"  
"Would you have come along if I told you?"  
"No! Look, I cannot just be a Barista, one needs proper training-"  
"Ryeowook will train you, though."  
"-and experience-"  
"You gotta start somewhere."  
"-and I made a fool out of myself!" Xiumin huffed, entering the passcode to his apartment, and avoiding to meet his eyes.  
Chanyeol's big hand came to cover his over the doorknob.  
"But you didn't. You were awesome. You managed to handle everything after I showed you only once."  
With an incredulous snort Xiumin looked over his shoulder.  
"After YOU showed me what exactly? Wait..." he interrupted himself, as he saw the mischievous glint in the brown eyes.  
"...You're not as clueless about everything as you pretended, now are you?"  
"Oh, I don't know what you're talking about~" he sing-songed, lightly caressing the shorter ones' hip with his other hand. When had it sneaked there?  
It was simple touches like that that left him nervous. Or was it anticipation?  
He shook of the thought (and the hand) as he walked inside, mumbling: "You'll be the death of me."  
"I'm trying~" came the cheery response.

The rest of the afternoon went by surprisingly peacefully.  
Chanyeol had told him to do whatever he usually did on Sunday afternoons. When Xiumin remained hesitant, Chanyeol only reassured him not to mind him. Figuring this might be a test, Xiumin decided to take the bait and reached for the latest book he had been reading and made himself comfortable on his plush armchair.  
It turned out that Chanyeol had been serious. While he turned the pages, Chanyeol sat down on the floor, leaning onto the glass table with huge headphones covering his ears. Slightly moving his head to the beat he tapped a pen against his lips. He was probably writing lyrics for a new song, Xiumin assumed. After a few minutes he began to relax, and managed to focus on his book. Just sitting in silence and reading was what he mostly did (if not for the rare occasion that he turned on the TV), and having another presence in the room was oddly pleasant.  
When he was long immersed into his book, at some point Chanyeol spoke up, his deep voice cutting through the silence - though he obviously spoke rather quiet in an effort not to startle him.  
"Xiu?"  
He looked up to meet a questioning glance.  
"Uhm... Can you still read with music playing in the background?"  
"Is it dubstep?"  
"Uh, no?"  
"Then yes."  
He got a cheery smile in response as Chanyeol stood up and left the room.  
At first he was slightly confused, but then some noises came from the bedroom, muffled by the closed door. It seemed like he was practicing on his guitar. Xiumin wanted to go back to his book, he really wanted to. But he was also really curious. So after about 10 minutes of failed attempts to blank out the sounds, he finally gave up and went to open the door to his room, the open book still in one hand.  
Chanyeol, who had been sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed, looked up.  
"I'm sorry, am I being too loud?"  
"Uhm, no. But... You don't need to hide away in here, you know. Muffled noises are even more distracting than clear ones. And besides, the bedroom is only for sleeping, you'll make a mess."  
Chanyeol raised a brow and send him a smile, patiently waiting.  
"And... Yeah. I was wondering... Whether you're good... At playing." he ended meekly in a quiet voice under the knowing eyes on him. Not daring to push his Hyung further, Chanyeol got up and followed to settle in the living room.  
The book soon was forgotten in his small hands as the sound of the guitar filled the room, the melody clear in the spacious living area. He found himself enjoying the little solo-performance quite a lot. The tall boy was most probably well-aware of him staring, but didn't look up from his guitar. When Chanyeol had warmed himself up, he even began to softly hum along, and then Xiumin truly was a goner. It was fascinating how very much he liked to listen to this idiots' voice. No matter whether he was rapping, talking, flirting or singing... The deep timbre of his voice set something inside him fluttering.  
So, yes, Xiumin genuinely appreciated Chanyeol's attempt to leave him some space, but for now he was too captivated to take him up on the offer.

After a simple dinner Xiumin sternly reminded Chanyeol on their not-yet-done homework. Surprisingly, he complied without making a fuss and while Xiumin sat at his desk, Chanyeol was lounging around on the couch, both diligently scribbling their essays down. It was supposed to be an essay about something that's of great importance in daily life or a writing contest the school intended to participate for.  
While Xiumin was highly concentrated on his essay about how the freedom of press enabled todays' life as it was , Chanyeol was humming happily.  
How could this kid even be happy during homework? Did he even enjoy writing boring essays?  
Fifteen minutes into concentrated writing, Chanyeol spoke up suddenly.  
"Hyuuu~ng~? I'm almost finished! Let me read it to you." While Xiumin pretended not to listen, he heard a deep inhale being taken, before Chanyeol read out loudly:  
"Why ice cream is of great importance for my daily life."  
Xiumin rolled his eyes in resignation. Her teacher was surely gonna throw a piece of chalk at him upon hearing this. Wouldn't be the first time, if he could believe the rumors.  
"Even though I harbor utmost respect for science, there remain things and values that cannot be proven by it. One of those would be the relevance of ice cream in my life." Chanyeol continued seriously in a loud voice. It sounded like a diligent middle school boy reading in class. Xiumin sighed.  
"Whenever things get too hot in my daily life, I can get some ice cream to calm my nerves and relax. One would assume that the cold of ice is supposed to be unpleasant, but I find it very comforting. While I tend to be hot-headed, the ice cream keeps its' cool, and helps me to keep mine, as well."  
The shorter one hesitated mid-sentence, his pen stilling in the air. Chanyeol **was** talking about ice cream, wasn't he?  
"Another fact about ice cream is that it comes in an uncountable amount of flavors. Discovering more and more flavors is an amazing experience, so I can't hold myself back when it comes to ice cream. On top of that I'll never be able to see all the flavors - This way I'll never ever get tired of it."  
By then, Xiumin was slightly blushing in embarrassment. This was supposed to be too cheesy, so why did he let the words get to him? It was practically a not-really-hidden confession.  
With his back still turned, he missed the mischievous glint in Chanyeol's eyes.  
"I'm not sure of my favorite flavor yet but I know for sure, that the taste of ice cream is amazing, no matter the form. Actually it tastes so enticing that I get really greedy, not wanting to share even one... bite." The last word was breathed into his ear quietly, making Xiumin flinch. As his voice had dropped one octave, his speech ending after a suggestive pause, Xiumin unconsciously held his breath, not noticing the approach. There was no touch, just that hot whisper in his ear, making him shiver in anticipation as it drew closer to him.  
"I'd like to savior the unique taste all on my own... Being the only one to know about the hidden and delicious flavors and the shivers it gives me. So I continue to indulge myself in the pleasure of ice cream melting under my tongue..."  
Finally Xiumin snapped and whirled around in his chair to smack his head.  
"T-that's not even written in correct grammar-" he stammered out, blatantly ignoring the innuendo.  
"-Since it's supposed to melt 'on' your tongue, not 'under' - Who'd even say that?!"  
When Chanyeol's grin widened as he began to act out a sudden understanding, he knew he had made a mistake.  
"You're right, Hyung!", he called out in mock-admiration, tapping his lips in a thoughtful manner, "Since it's supposed to be in my mouth, I get it-"  
A writing pad was flying at him and Chanyeol yelped as it hit his head.  
"That's IT! You're sleeping on the floor today!" Xiumin announced as he tried to hide his scarlet face that really didn't suit his gift at all.  
   
In the end he did let Chanyeol sleep on his bed anyway. As they lay awake, already huddled rather closely together, the taller one spoke up in a sleepy voice.  
"Xiu?"  
"Mh?"  
"Tomorrow it's your day. We'll do aaall the things you wanna do, so think of something."  
"What do you mean?" he asked back slightly curious.  
The reply was muffled as he had nuzzled his face into the bubblegum pink hair.  
"Saturday was **my** day, so we did whatever I do with my time... And today was **our** day, so we did stuff that concerns us both... And tomorrow it's gonna be **your** turn."

  
When Xiumin woke up overly early the next day he wasn't all that surprised. After all, there were many thoughts going through his head. Besides that the heavy limbs tangled with his radiated a warmth he wasn't used to. A tired blink to the alarm clock told him there was over an hour before he even considered trying to rouse Chanyeol. So he turned to his side, watching the peacefully sleeping boy who had one arm draped under his head while the other one rested on his waist.  
Truth to be told, Xiumin was a little disappointed. Today was the last day of their pretense-relationship and after that assault-like encounter Xiumin had initiated, nothing further had happened between them. Sure, there had been all sorts of warm and comforting skin contact which he greatly appreciated(he hadn't even realized how much he had missed it until Chanyeol invaded his life). Still, it was nothing like the exciting and burning sensation the kisses had left on his skin. Actually Xiumin thought about that moment more often than he probably should. But who could blame him? After all, it had been his first 'frisky' experience in years, with him being careful to avoid touching anyone. He was a young and healthy man after all. It didn't help that Chanyeol kept reminding him with his continuous teasing. Nevertheless, he didn't make a single real move on him. Thinking about it, it made sense. 'He probably didn't want me to feel cheap', Xiumin assumed. Yes, that was considerate. But also so very frustrating. Especially since they didn't actually kiss that evening.  
He stared at his slightly parted lips in fascination. The urge to press his lips against him right this instant was so strong, his body warmth so tempting. Never being one to hold back, Xiumin pushed the younger one on his back easily. Chanyeol really was kind of a light-weight. Said one let out a confused groan, but before he could make sense of the situation, Xiumin had already settled on top of him, both thighs keeping him firmly in position as he supported part of his weight on the shoulders to further pin him down.  
"Xiu?" he murmured, blinking up at him sleepily.  
He gave a questioning hum in response while he dragged his slender fingers over the bare chest - Good thing that Chanyeol preferred to sleep with such little clothing on.  
When he softly combed through the messy hair, letting it curl around his fingers and settled to cup his cheek carefully, an approving sigh left those lips he craved to kiss so badly.  
Then he felt warm hands wander along his thighs. Sternly he increased the pressure on the one shoulder.  
"Stop it." he ordered.  
A mix between hurt and more confusion flickered across his huge, shining eyes and immediately Xiumin felt like having kicked a puppy. Still, he retreated his hands with a pout.  
This time he didn't want to get carried away. He wanted a kiss, and he would get it. As soon as the other expanse of skin under his fingertips got boring, that is. But he couldn't seem to stop drawing nonsensical patterns onto the heated skin, since it shuddered so nicely under his feathering touches. When he slowly bent down to place an equally soft kiss in the crook of his neck he got a sound in response that almost resembled a whimper. The sound was intriguing and he yearned to hear it again. For once Xiumin was thankful for his rather cold lips as he traced them around the areas he assumed to be even more sensitive. Trying to imitate Chanyeol's movements(he was a fast learner after all), he trailed over his nipple to experimentally lick across it. He could see Chanyeol's hands gripping the sheets tightly as he sharply inhaled.  
"Xiu..." he sighed in a mix of pleasure and desperation.  
"Why can't I-"  
He never finished the sentence as Xiumin circled his cool fingers around the now wet nipple, teasing a soft moan out of him.  
Then he sat up again, to look down at the already slightly wrecked looking male.  
His chest was rising and falling due to his heavy breathing as he looked up at him with dazed eyes. Xiumin couldn't help but stare. For some reason, this flushed cheeks suited him well.  
"You said it's **my** day today, didn't you? Now be a good boy and stay down." he stated in a teasing manner even though he couldn't deny his breath had become a little ragged as well.  
Then he began to lean down, towards his face, inch by inch. Neither said a word, but various emotions were flickering in the warm, brown eyes. Xiumin was sure his eyes mirrored them: slight wariness, gentleness, affection, expectation- And then their lips finally touched. The cold lips met the warm ones. Xiumin was almost to nervous to be overwhelmed. But then, very hesitantly, the boy below him began to move his lips, nipping at his carefully, wiping out every single thought in his brain. He tried really hard to slow himself down, aware of the fact that a first kiss with someone could not be re-done. So he gently reciprocated the movements, trying to adapt his pace. Chanyeol's movements were careful, almost shy and he could feel his heart beating rapidly as his fists slowly relaxed in the sheets; the observation sent his own heart fluttering as well. Soon he couldn't resist but draw out their careful pecks more and more, deepening the kiss. A deep sigh rumbled through the boy beneath him. Getting more and more lost into the heat of the moment he swiped his tongue over Chanyeol's lips, feeling almost desperate for more. Suddenly the taller one flinched visibly, his body tensing up again. Sensing a problem, Xiumin immediately withdrew himself, but kept hovering over him closely, searching his eyes in a questioning manner.  
The brown orbs looked at him apologetically before flitting away. Then a thought occurred to Xiumin. "This... Wasn't your first kiss, was it?" he asked in a raspy voice. The wide eyed nervous look he got in response was all he needed.  
Chanyeol looked positively anxious, now in fear he had messed up. On the inside, Xiumin wasn't sure what to think. Currently he was torn between: 'How on Earth did he not kiss anyone in his whole life? Surely he wasn't short of admirers, and he has it all, so how?! And how could he have been so flirtatious all the time?!' and ' **That's** why he didn't kiss me on Friday!' and 'God, I took a first kiss without much thought, I hope **I** didn't mess up! What if he's gonna be traumatized forever?!'  
While Xiumin fought an inner battle, Chanyeol hesitantly opened his mouth.  
"Uhm... I'm so-"  
"Shh." it came out almost too demanding, and Xiumin chastised himself a little, before continuing in a softer voice.  
"Don't you dare apologize. I should be the one to say sorry." he said, caressing his heated cheek tenderly.  
"N-no. I like it. Just... I don't know what I'm doing, so-" he stammered a little lost, but still straight-forward as ever.  
"You're doing great." Xiumin reassured him with a genuine smile.  
He received an unsure half-smile in return.  
"...Though a little practice wouldn't do any harm..." he added playfully, trying to put the nervous boy at ease. His features softened again as he reached for Chanyeol's hands and guided them to lay on his waist.  
"I'm sorry. Let's take it a little more slow..." he whispered as he dipped his head down again to meet the already slightly reddened lips.

Xiumin wasn't terribly experienced either, but as their lips kept meeting, hot and cold mingling together they both turned out to be fast learners. They shared light and innocent pecks with a reassuring smile as well as sensual and affectionate kisses that sent their heads spinning. And as they were turning in the sheets between all those sweet mewls and sighs, even he didn't know whether he preferred Chanyeol to be hovering over or pinned under him anymore. He found it not too important, though; as long as he stayed in a proximity close enough to turn his head all muzzy from heat.

"Yeol, we're gonna be late, come on."  
Chanyeol looked up from his little notepad and hurriedly put it away as he scrambled behind the shorter one.  
"Sooorry~ There was just this one idea-"  
"Later." Xiumin cut him off, as he grabbed for the taller ones arm to tug him along. After a few meters he discreetly(or so he thought) let his fingers slide down the arm to his wrist instead. Playing along, Chanyeol intertwined their fingers with a smile.  
Secretly he was a little surprised at their open display of... Well, of whatever they had. But since Xiumin never cared about what people thought of him, it made sense in a way.  
When he sent the shorter one off to the schools' secretary, where he wanted to apply for a full certificate, he still pondered whether there was anything he could do to persuade the cute boy to stay with him. Lost in thoughts he sat down on a bench an reached for his small notepad...

When Xiumin came back to find an empty bench, his brows furrowed in confusion. Where did this hyperactive giant go?  
Then he heard a dull sound from nearby and saw a short and chubby-looking boy sprint away from something. As he rounded the corner, his eyes widened upon seeing Chanyeol crumpled on the floor between 3 guys attacking him. As per usual, Chanyeol hardly did anything to fight back, just taking the kicks and hits. Before Xiumin even knew what he was doing he was sprinting over to them, waving his hand in the process once. With a sudden crackling sound massive ice pickles rose from the ground around Chanyeol, not only forcing the bullies back, but barely stopping before their necks as well. They to didn't even have time to scream as they were rooted to the spot in a state of shock.  
Xiumin didn't run to Chanyeol's side but kept his eyes on the bullies instead as he took the last few steps. Two guys were familiar. They had even pushed him against a wall once in a while, throwing empty threats and whatnot. While Xiumin usually reacted calm and unfazed, his eyes were now narrowed and blazing with anger.  
"What the hell!" one of the bullies called out as he finally realized just who was threatening them. "You're the fake-gifted one!" another one gasped.  
Chanyeol didn't even say anything but looked at him with big eyes from his position on the floor.  
The sparp icicles seemed to twinkle menacingly - Had they just grown another inch?  
"I'm warning you." Xiumin said bitingly, voice as cold as the rapidly sinking temperature around them.  
"Fire is a forgiving thing. Ice is not."

He said no more and they almost cowered under his icy stare. A few tense seconds later they finally strode away, their legs wobbling visibly as they paced up their steps with every meter. Only when they were all gone, did Xiumin look down at Chanyeol... Just to lightly nudge him with his foot.  
"What are you doing down there?" he demanded, before reaching out his hand. Still, Chanyeol stared at him.  
"Don't look at me like that. If you wanna be with me, you better stop getting yourself beat up like that. I don't like it." he stated, his hand still outstretched.  
A few seconds of silence followed. Then a bright smile crept on the lanky boy's face, growing wider until he bit his lip to stop creeping Xiumin out. He reached for his Hyung's hand who in turn pulled him up without difficulties.  
He only winced a little at the pain and the shorter one examined him with a scrutinizing gaze. Then he tugged him back to the bench. Chanyeol, obviously afraid to break the spell of 'caring Xiumin', didn't dare to say anything as the elder took out his bag and got some tissues drenched in water to dab at his face, where a small scratch went along his forehead.  
"I don't mind you standing up for whoever. But you can't run around with bleeding scratches, you'll look like a delinquent." he said matter-of-factly as he rummaged in his bag and got out a band-aid. When his slender fingers brushed the messy hair aside carefully to gently place the band-aid over it, he began to become uneasy with the silence.  
"W-why are so quiet? Did they actually hurt you?" he inquired fidgety.  
When their eyes met, he could see the affection shining in his deep brown eyes.  
"I like you so much." he suddenly blurted out.  
Taken by surprise, Xiumin drew back a bit. Not sure how to react, he brushed it off with a swat at his arm, and got up, swinging the bag over his shoulder.  
"It's time for classes. Today you're at the Science Club, aren't you?" he conversed as if nothing had happened. Smiling, Chanyeol got up to brush some of the dust off of his uniform and pat his hair down a little.  
"I can skip."  
"Don't you even think about it. I'll be waiting at the library."  
With this, Xiumin went ahead, too flustered to say anything else.  
Lost in thoughts on what to do after school, he leisurely made his way to the library.  
Sure, usually he wouldn't do anything interesting, but seeing as it was some sort of final test for the both of them, Xiumin would have liked something a little more... Special. Well, even if they only lazed around at his home, they could surely make some room for more kissing. Yeah, that'd be great as well. Win-win situation.  
With a faint smile, he entered the library.

  
He had fallen asleep. Everything was dark and the chair dugged into his back painfully. Xiumin felt hazy. Like, really hazy. Then he realized that his hands were tied behind his back. Something was wrong. In a surge of panic his eyes flew open. The first thing flashing up in his thoughts was: he wasn't in the library anymore. The second: It felt like it was late; he had stood up Chanyeol on this important day. Blinking away the random thought he tried to take in his surroundings. Everything was dark and rather chilly(not that he minded), and no one was in sight. He seemed to be in a small abandoned storehouse. And he indeed was tied to a chair. Xiumin was confused. What had happened? He could remember entering the library, studying,... And then what? Right, someone had called for him. But as he left the room... Everything went black. In that moment the gifted one didn't even feel frustration towards being careless enough to get overpowered that easily. Xiumin was a realist who preferred to solve problems instead of philosophizing about them. Freezing the rope that held him was easy. Freezing it so much it got porose... Was possible was well. Not that Xiumin did stuff like that everyday. Still, in a matter of a minute or two, he hit his hands against the chair, making the rope crumble. Just when his hands got free, an unknown voice echoed through the hall.  
"Who allowed you to leave already?"  
Xiumin looked around his shoulder instinctively. He didn't recognize the guy, but the two figures behind him, he did. The bullies from earlier. He merely sighed and shrugged the ropes off the rest of the way, rubbing his wrists to sooth the pressure-marks.  
"You're pretty chill now, aren't you?" the guy said.  
Xiumin just stood up, fully intending to ignore the three morons.  
Then an incredibly loud click echoed across the room and Xiumin halted in his movements.  
"You might want to sit down again." the strangers voice suggested in what resembled a demand.  
Without moving his limbs, Xiumin looked up. In the semi-darkness of the hall, the metal still managed to shimmer. It was a gun. He didn't move another muscle, staring at the object. A gun.  
"I heard you're a quick one. But are you quicker than a bullet?" the guy asked as he took a few steps towards the shorter boy that was rooted to the spot.  
"I told you to sit down. NOW."  
Not averting his eyes, Xiumin slowly sank back onto the hard chair again.  
"Now that's more like it. You know who I am, boy?"  
Not daring to move a muscle, Xiumin's eyes shortly flitted from the weapon to the guy's face. And back.  
Something rather unfamiliar was coiling in his body; Fear. Panic, even. There was a limit to everything. This was a weapon. A dangerous one. And he had weighed up his chances in a split-second. It was easy; he had none. No ice in the world could save him from a bullet.  
"Ah, I assumed as much. You don't know me. Maybe the Black Tiger rings a bell?"  
The petrified boy didn't seem to react, but inside his thoughts were a mess. The Black Tiger was an infamous street gang in Seoul, known for violence and extremism. Their targets were the weak ones, the rich ones... And the gifted ones.  
He cursed inside.  
"Oooh, I see you're getting it." the guy congratulated him as if talking to a child.  
He took another step, the gun still pointed at his head.  
Xiumin tried to repress a tremble. One click and he'd be gone. Gone. Dead. No one could save him in a split-second. His brain went on stand-by. The image of Chanyeol finding his body, bled to death, burned itself into his head. He would be devastated. Worst thing about it was, that Xiumin would feel terribly guilty over letting Chanyeol get attached to him and then leave him shortly after.  
While his brain was shooting out all of those jumbled thoughts, he barely listened to the man that kept talking.  
"You gifted ones are so... Arrogant. You think the world belongs to you, don't you? I heard you attacked some of our men this morning. You think you can behave like this and get away, right? But one simple gun could take out all of you scum." His voice got more and more agitated and Xiumin knew this was a bad sign. Emotional people tended to pull the trigger quicker. The gun finally touched his forehead and never ever before had Xiumin felt cold. Now he was shaking. Pictures of the guy in the hospital flashed his mind. He'd be gone. Even more gone, truly gone.  
"Maybe if you begged for forgiveness... Just maybe we'd let you go. Who knows, wanna take a chance?" he said in a patronizing manner. Then he nodded over at the two guys that had stayed behind all the time.  
"Apologize to them."  
In that moment, Xiumin would have said anything. Anything at all. So he opened his mouth, but his lips were trembling and the breath was stuck in his throat. When not a single sound left his mouth, the gun was pushed against his skin suddenly, making him flinch. His stomach felt sick to an extent where he thought he'd just puke.  
"You don't want to say sorry?"he looked up at the stranger with wide eyes. He had never seen him before, but still this man would kill him. Would put a bullet through his skin to make the blood splash out of him.  
Then a tear escaped his burning eyes, slowly running down his pale skin. And another one.  
"Aww, he's cryin'. Ain't that adorable. But little one, I didn't asked for puppy eyes. I asked for you to beg."  
As Xiumin opened his trembling mouth, a choked stutter left his mouth.  
"P-p-plea-"  
"What is going on here?"  
It was Chanyeol's voice, he recognized it immediately. He wanted to yell at him, to leave; to leave because he wouldn't want him to get hurt. But no sound would come out.  
From the corner of his eyes he already saw a figure approaching.  
Surprisingly, the guy put down the gun and Xiumin's head flew around to Chanyeol.  
The tall guy looked at Xiumin, taking in his state with an unreadable expression. When he looked at the man with the gun pointed to the floor, Xiumin swore he saw the fire flickering  in his eyes. He didn't shout, oh no. He talked slowly and almost quietly, the repressed aggressiveness in his deep voice more menacing than anything Xiumin had ever heard.  
"How dare you." He took a step towards the guy that seemed petrified.  
"How... **Dare** you."  
The room temperature rose sharply.  
When another flicker of silver appeared, Xiumin instinctively flinched again. But it wasn't the gun; it was a knife the guy had pointed at Chanyeol.  
Without averting his eyes, Chanyeol finally spoke to Xiumin, his voice calm, but lacking the usual softness.  
"Xiumin. It's not a gun. You are not in danger." he slowly said, still advancing on the guy holding a knife.  
Xiumin heard. But his brain was too shocked to even react. And his body wouldn't stop shaking.  
"The first time I was pretty nervous as well. But those guys just like scaring people off like that. Very amusing indeed." he went on, taking another step.  
The knife-pointing man seemed to get nervous as well.  
"Y-You can't hurt us. They'll know. You'll lose everything. They'll p-put you in an asylum-" he began, the tip of his knife wavering in the air.  
"You know-", Chanyeol began, his voice disconcertingly monotone, "I was always wondering about your type of people. What was all the fuss about? What drives you? I was pondering about it." he went on in an eery imitation of curiosity, that was disturbed by the absence of any emotion in his big eyes. Then, before anyone could react, he had grabbed the wrist that held onto the knife.  
"'Is it about fear?', I used to ask myself." he calmly said as his grip around the wrist tightened, leaving the man to struggle in vain. Then he guided the hand, that was forced to hold onto the knife, closer to him, leaving the tip of the silver metal to nudge the fabric of his shirt.  
"Or is it about actually drawing blood?" he continued as he slowly forced the knife into his shoulder. The guy gasped and tried to free his hand from Chanyeol's grip but it was a vain attempt.  
"You're mad! Fucked up! ...Fuck!" the guy cursed nonsensical, struggling with panic evident in his face.  
As if confirming an obvious observation, Chanyeol slightly nodded to himself, inching the knife in a little further.  
"So it's the first one, then."  
Blood began to surge from the wound and seemed to wake up Xiumin. With his trembling fingers he reached out for his mobile phone to call the police. As he unlocked his pin on the third try, Chanyeol spoke up again, his voice quiet and velvety.  
"Xiumin. **Honey**. Don't call the cops."  
By now, Xiumin was positively scared for a completely different reason. Chanyeol was frightening him. This wasn't the warm and sensitive person he grew fond of. This person was drenched in aggressiveness and wrath. And he was afraid to be the spark to ignite it.  
"Why don't you take a nice little home video?" he suggested.  
For a second, Xiumin just stared at him. This was bat-shit crazy. Chanyeol was bleeding. He wouldn't video-tape his boyfriend getting cut up-  
Then their eyes met and something inside those brown orbs made Xiumin do something he wasn't used to; he trusted him.  
With a resounding 'beep', the camera started recording.  
"You see, Xiu's mobile phone is pretty old-", Chanyeol started in a conversational tone as he dragged the knife closer to his clavicle, "The video quality is awful and don't even get me started on the sound quality. God-awful. Might even be a mute video." The guy whimpered as the blood poured out of the wound. "But you know, I think if we'll send this video to the police, they might be able to recognize you... Stabbing a poor, poor civilian. He did nothing to defend himself, yet you drove a knife into him. There'll be a looot of finger prints to prove it." he continued in a conspiratorial tone, looking at the guys hand that was weakly struggling to get free, Chanyeol's hand pressing his fingers against the handle painfully.  
"Or even better yet! We might just upload it. How does "High rank Black Tiger member assaults a gifted one" sound? How happy do you think they'll get upon realizing someone has used their name?"  
Xiumin's hands were shaking around the phone. The blood got more and more, drenching his uniform.  
Chanyeol's voice lost all the pretense and went to being straight-out threatening.  
"If you ever step near him again... If you ever try to touch him again with that filthy hands of yours or even do as much as look his way, this video will be yours to worry about, but let me guarantee you: It wil be your least worry. This is not a warning. It's a promise."  
"I-I have witnesses!" the guy hissed.  
"Really? You might want to hurry along to make sure they've witnessed the right thing, then." Chanyeol answered piercingly as he ripped the hand and with it the knife, away from him. Instantly, the guy turned around to look for his two friends that were fleeing the scene. Desperately he cried out for them to wait, then tried to threaten them as he stumbled after them as fast as he could.  
As soon as they were gone, Chanyeol slowly sank to his knees, trying to hold the blood in. Xiumin collapsed next to him, reaching for him with his shaky hands, the phone lying somewhere forgotten.  
"L-let me help you, I'll fix it, I'll freeze it-"  
"NO! Don't touch it!" Chanyeol exclaimed, flinching away from Xiumin's hands. Something inside him broke at that.  
Sensing the flurry of emotions in the single-lidded eyes Chanyeol tried to reassure him, but still kept his distance.  
"You might burn yourself Hyung, so please... It's ok."  
"It's not okay, nothing is okay here-"  
"Shhh. I'll fix it in a sec. You hear me, Xiumin? My gift will heal me."  
Xiumin tried really hard not to cry, all the emotions threatening to burst.  
"Y-you're lying! It's all lies to c-comfort me - Let me-"  
"Xiumin. I'm a phoenix. It'll heal."  
Xiumin blinked. Chanyeol closed his eyes calmly, clutching his wound, as a wave of warmth surged through him, so strong, Xiumin felt overwhelmed. In a mix of terror and fascination he felt the heat rising steadily as Chanyeol groaned quietly. He had the urge to reach out for him, but the heat prevented him from doing so.  
Then the heat subsided again and Chanyeol carefully removed his hand to spare the wound a look-over. The fabric close to the wound had been burnt and below he could see the wound. It was still there, but a healing crust had already developed, stopping the bleeding.  
Xiumin stared at it, his thoughts processing the current events slowly.  
The lanky boy looked up with a lopsided grin, reaching out to pull Xiumin closer.  
"Give it a few hours and I'll be as good as new."  
For a few minutes, Xiumin did nothing but to tremble in his arms, the after-effects of the situation sinking in. He had his face buried in Chanyeol's neck, where he could feel the heat radiating off of the fresh wound on his shoulder. After what felt like forever, Xiumin withdrew himself only to... Punch him in the stomach. Hard.  
"Congratulations on being the biggest jerk on the planet!" he burst out angrily.  
Chanyeol looked at him with this big brown orbs, blinking in confusion.  
"You scared me almost more than... Than this... I hate you, Park Chanyeol! I freakin' hate you!", he shouted, tearing at his hair in frustration, "Why did you even step into my life like that?!"  
At this, a panicked look flashed over Chanyeol's face, as he hastily scrambled closer to the shorter one.  
"N-no, wait, Xiumin Hyung! I know that was a bit much, but they'll be off your back forever now...  I'm sorry, look, I'm so sorry-"  
"This has been going on for months, for months! There's nothing we have in common but you kept bothering me again and again! Now we spent an entirety of only three days together and still-"  
"Wait, Hyung, wait!" Chanyeol fell in again, patting his pockets frantically.  
"Shit, I lost it - Xiumin please, you have to hear me out. I really like you and I want to stay in this relationship, make it a real one. I even wrote down a list of things we have in common, but I don't have the notepad on me right now; god, I'm such an idiot-"  
As Xiumin opened his mouth, Chanyeol interrupted him with an urgent desperation.  
"We're both very straight-forward and stubborn! And honest, brutally honest! And, and loyal! And we both like to sleep in, and-"  
Then Xiumin clasped his tiny hand over his mouth, forcefully silencing him.  
"...And we both don't hear people out." Xiumin stated with an unreadable look.  
The brown orbs were huge and pleading, but he did keep silent.  
"I was going to say: And still... _I refuse to let you go_." he whispered the last part and withdrew his hand, placing it in his lap. He felt vulnerable and so overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions rushing through him, the most prominent one being anxiety.  
He felt warm hands cup his face as he looked up.  
A velvety gaze met a shining one. Fire met ice.  
"Another thing in common. We're already beginning to complete each other."  
And lips met lips.

 


End file.
